“SERVING THE TURN”: COLLABORATION AND PROOF IN ILLEGAL HAND-PRESS PERIOD BOOKS

his article considers the prooing of illegally-printed texts, primarily during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We argue that prooing – the practice of correcting a text during the printing process – is key to understanding the social dynamics of authorship, and the strains on production resulting from political suppression of the press during this period. We look at the evidence of prooing let in books (usually religious pamphlets), as well as the testimony of authors and printers. hese sources reveal that illegal printing necessitated a remarkable degree of team work.


Introduction
Turning out an illegal book in the hand-press period (c.1455-c.1830) was a diicult process, both politically and practically.With the Reformation, the printed word in Britain became a tool for disseminating controversial as well as orthodox ideas, and as such, printing was subject to various degrees of censorship.his remained the case throughout the political tumult of the seventeenth century.During the hand-press period, the prooing stage of printing -when errors in the text were corrected -was of special concern for producers and censors.By ensuring a certain level of accuracy and legibility, prooing upheld the message of a printed text.Being implicated in the correction of an illegal book was also held as proof of another kind, and could result in execution.Yet, despite the high stakes for those involved, and the insights it ofers into the press's social machinery, prooing practice in the early hand-press period is not fully understood.he logistics of correction and their impact on the quality of the inal text have long exercised the minds of textual editors and historical bibliographers.he extent to which printers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries cared for the accuracy of the text is a particular "known unknown".Traditionally, "ideal copy" -a concept irst loated in 1949 by Fredson Bowers -is the measure by which bibliographers have assessed all printed representations of an author's texts.Bowers deined it as "a book which is complete in all its leaves as it ultimately let the printer's shop in perfect condition and in the complete state that he considered to represent the inal and most perfect state of the book" (113).One of the shortcomings of this approach is that usually we do not know what the perfect condition of a work might be and Bowers concedes the point for he states "if the only known copy seems normal, we must infer it is perfect" (113).In general, the earlier a work was printed, the fewer copies remain today.For illegal works, which had to be distributed carefully, even fewer might remain.Clearly, assessing "ideal copy" in the context of the handpress period presents a challenge.Changing trends in editorial practices in the last few decades suggest that editors equate "perfection" with authorial intention (conscious or otherwise).his is despite widespread misgivings about relying on it as the sole measure of the accuracy of critical interpretation.Another limitation of this approach is its assumption of singular authorship, and that those prooing and printing have no impact on a book's state and meaning.Again, the model of textual production implied by "ideal copy" as it is traditionally understood does not it.What we know of the workings of illegal presses in the early hand-press period suggests a highly collaborative approach borne of necessity and in some cases idealism.
he copy text preferred by scholarly editors used to be the last edition that an author amended.Now the irst edition tends to be used as copy text, on the basis that authors "edit out" the radical linguistic innovations or social frissons of their début.In the hand-press period, authors routinely attended the printing of their work, to catch errors early.Authorial involvement could be even greater for illegal material, where the author oten belonged to the same network or faction as the printer, corrector and compositor.At the least, those responsible for the printing process would have to be complacent about putting illegal texts through their press.he accuracy of texts was heavily impacted by the legal and material conditions -oten restrictive -to which they were subject.Considering these material and social circumstances can, therefore, be useful in our interpretations of what constitutes "ideal copy". he shape given to printed texts by ideological and practical contexts means that we might only realistically expect copy that represents a line of best it between authorial intention and reader reception.hat is, a work that presents to the reader that which the author(s) intended in as clear and unambiguous a manner as is appropriate to the sense (Jackson 257).
While the relationship between "ideal copy" and authorial intention may have changed drastically, authors have been held responsible -to varying degrees -for the accuracy of their copy since the spread of the printing press.From the earliest years of the hand-press period, those involved with the press could face legal consequences for poor prooing.Around the year 1500, a case in Chancery was brought against three lawyers, based on their failure to "gyue attendaunce in Correctyng examenyng euery lefe ater the prynting of the seid bokes [Abbreviamentum statutorum, 1499]" .hat action was levelled against all three lawyers shows us that prooing was seen as a collective responsibility.We also know the general practice of making stop-press corrections was carried out whilst the sheets passed through the press, for variant states have been found in Caxton"s early works (Bühler).Also, according to Simpson, the practice of authors attending the press or expecting the printer to send out proofs seems to have become customary in the sixteenth century (255).Apologies, excuses and recriminations for errors remaining in published texts are oten found in prefatory material.By 1625 it seems that the procedure was common enough for it to be the subject of a series of jokes in Middleton and Fletcher"s he Nice Valour and thus understood by the audience (Act iv, scene 1).
Delineating the normal stages of proofreading during the hand-press period requires that we consider evidence in practical and circumstantial terms.he varying degrees of evidence attributable to the successive stages of prooing may be signiicant in themselves. he abundant evidence of the third stage of prooing (stop-press correction) aforded by press variants and the lack of examples of stages one and two (irst proof and revises) might at irst be misleading, for by their very nature, "presspulls" tend not to survive.here are also some contemporary accounts of printing that claim multiple prooing stages were common practice.Moxon's Mechanick exercises, which was irst published in 1683-4, is the most comprehensive contemporary printing manual in the early hand-press period.he process involved several distinct roles, and multiple cycles of revision: …the Compositor gives the Corrector the Proof and his Copy to Correct it by: which being Corrected, the Corrector gives it again to the Compositor to Correct the Form by ( 233).
[hen the compositor]…carries the Form to the Press, and lays it on the Stone for a Second Proof, and sometimes for a hird Proof… (238).
Ater all this Correcting a Revise is made (239).
[If necessary], Ater the Second or hird Proof he has a Revise, which is also a Proof-sheet: He examines in this Revise, Fault by Fault, if all the Faults he markt in the last Proof were carefully mended by the Compositer; if not, he marks them in the Revise.
hus you see it behoves him to be very careful as well as skilful; and indeed it is his own interest to be both: For if by his neglect an Heap be spoiled, he is obliged to make Reparation (250).
As the text bounces back and forth between compositor and corrector, Moxon's explanation begins to read like a Biblical litany.Best practice is outlined here in the manner of a conduct manual, which points to the social and commercial obligations involved.Despite Moxon's detailed account of the press's procedures, Bowers doubts that the Mechanick exercises represents what happened during the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.Multiple revises, he contends, would have been seen as needless interruptions.But the "Reparation" mentioned by Moxon could be reason enough for stopping copy from being "spoiled" (a descriptor suggestive of moral as well as pecuniary reasoning).Whatever the reason, a signiicant number of changes were made to texts at the press during these periods, despite the resulting inconveniences.
Against this background of scepticism about Moxon's accuracy, it may be relevant to note another of his involvements pertaining to the presentation of printed language.Moxon also printed John Wilkins' An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language (1668).he Essay contained Wilkins' attempt at a "real character": a set of symbols associated with his attempt to create "philosophical language", from the need perceived by the Royal Society for a means of communicating unambiguously.homas Sprat, in he History of the Royal Society, explained the society's intention to reform English as a "return back to the primitive purity, and shortness, when men deliver' d so many things, almost in an equal number of words." Members aspired to speak "as near the Mathematical plainness, as they can" (113). he attempt was doomed to failure because language naturalises igurative senses all the time (Lakof 3).But, Moxon's involvement in the project, and his mathematical expertise, suggest that his account of printing would have been as directly representative of his view of real practice as he could make it.And we know the language used by Moxon was not unique to his press; it was also current in Jaggard's workshop in London in the 1620s (McKerrow 207).So why not the practices, at least to a lesser degree?Certainly, Greg believed that "there is plenty of evidence to show that the printer was not indiferent to the accuracy of his text and that he took what were thought in his day to be reasonable precautions, and went to some trouble, to reach a moderate standard" (Shakespeare 464).
Greg's concession that a "moderate" prooing standard was the aim of Jacobean printers is not unique.McKenzie questioned the extrapolated conclusions of our imperfect knowledge of printing-house practices during the hand-press period.In his essay, "Printers of the Mind", he set aside a purely "scientiic" investigative approach; instead, he mixed the intellectual process with not a little common sense when examining bibliographical considerations.McKenzie argued that, by nature, each successive stage of the correcting process superseded the previous one: there never can be equal amounts of evidence of stages one and two to compare with stage three (44).If the last stage was carried out, why should we assume the other two were not?his is especially relevant with illegal material that, if discovered and coniscated, would have been destroyed by the authorities.
Conditions between diferent printing houses were changing constantly, as were the conditions within each house, maybe even on a daily basis.Further, we cannot compare the working practices of commercial presses in London with the partially-subsidised university presses of Oxford and Cambridge and expect to ind identical approaches to printing procedures between them (see Hammersmith).Also, variations between works from the same printing house are not unknown; and this extends to the type, quality and frequency of corrections within an individual work.With so many participants and moving parts, the printing and prooing of text was bound to be complex and inconsistent.
he penalties for producing seditious and treasonous works were well known, for punishments were carried out publicly, arguably for the beneit of the collected gathering.However, we cannot know the impact of the law, and the extent to which it inluenced the accuracy of unlicensed material.It is true, though, that prooing procedures -especially stop-press corrections -would have a signiicant impact on the length of time needed to complete the printing of illegal or seditious texts.Consequently, any evidence of material that was seditious or politically sensitive being proofed, should call our attention to the increased risk that the authors and printers were taking in the name of good copy.As we shall see, prooing was regarded as a necessary intermediate step in the production of printed works, and was also broadly understood to be part of the enterprise, or system of the press.he author(s) were oten expected to be present, although the prooing itself was also the responsibility of printers and compositors.his practice means that illegally-printed material which shows evidence of having been proofed, was the work of collaborative networks of actors, not solitary authors.
he following discussion will focus on seditious material -from Tyndale's New Testament to the dissenting presses of the seventeenth century -where the collaborative nature of the press is demonstrated by records of prooing practice.

Historical background
A degree of state control of the press had been an aim of the authorities since early Tudor times.In the 1530s, some authors manipulated the current disagreement between Henry VIII and the Pope, presenting it as a backdrop to their heretical pronouncements.Given this context, the authorities in England turned a blind eye to those who criticised the church even to a heretical level if their arguments appeared to support the king, but this "strategically vague" approach did not last (da Costa). he mechanism for controlling the press remained relatively undeveloped under Edward VI and Mary Tudor.It continued to be inefectual for the most part until the mid-sixteenth century, until organised resistance by a growing number of printers, led by John Wolfe, prompted reform.Members of the trade agreed to share some responsibility for administering and enforcing regulations governing the press (Hoppe; Woodield).In 1557, the Stationers' Company received its charter from Philip and Mary. he collective responsibility exercised by the Company demonstrates that collaboration was a familiar tactic to those in the printing trade.
Methods of control were gradually reformed piecemeal by Elizabeth I, who was plagued by both Puritans and Catholics.In the early years the authorities seem to have diiculty dealing with those involved with printing and distributing illicit material, and this is relected in the lack of consistency in the punishments meted out.In some cases the Stationers' Company petitioned on behalf of imprisoned booksellers.Printers could be arrested and escape prosecution, only to be prosecuted and executed for similar ofenses several years later .he plethora of proclamations that were issued does seem to support the belief that the authorities were unable to formulate a coherent policy on how to proceed against illegal printing (Loades).
However, Elizabeth I persevered and with the Act of Uniformity (1558) was determined to stabilise and secure the religious question that seriously threatened her crown.She also strengthened her position through the bishops, to whom she gave extraordinary powers to compel obedience via the ecclesiastical courts.To ridicule the bishops was tantamount to ridiculing the queen.With her excommunication by the Pope in 1570, the authorities increased their eforts to suppress printed Catholic propaganda.his was a policy carried over into the seventeenth century, when Milton advocated for toleration of nonconformist texts but not of Catholic ones, in his Areopagitica (1644).By 1576, the Stationers' Company instructed that all London printing houses be inspected once a week by two searchers, who would report on the work being carried out, numbers employed and the number of presses in operation.he Star Chamber decree of 1586 conirmed the Company's authority to search for and seize all unlawful printing as well as establishing ecclesiastical censorship.

Circumstantial Evidence
State control of printing developed in response to commercial and ecclesiastical changes in England and on the continent.In the 1530s, ecclesiastical courts moved against Lollards, Lutherans and heretics.For nonconformists seeking to print Biblical texts in the vernacular, there was no speciic personal threat as there would be following the Reformation for Catholic recusant printers.Nonetheless, William Tyndale's intention to produce an English New Testament led to his permanent departure from England in April 1524.His safety in Germany was relative for he was aware of the ever-present threat from church spies, other English expatriates, and three commissioned agents from England sent to ind him.Just as Tyndale found it necessary to remain ever vigilant, so too did the printers who produced heretical works, as punishments on the continent were equal to those in England.It was therefore common to use false or ictitious colophons.
he irst edition of Tyndale's New Testament was printed in Worms in 1526, which marked the beginning of a nine-year career of producing heretical works during which he was actively sought by Sir homas More and his agents, whose aim was to bring about his rendition to England for trial and execution.More, the humanist and champion of the orthodox Christian church, had one obsession: heresy, and his bête noire was Tyndale.It is highly likely it was More's agent, Henry Phillips, who inally sprung the trap that ended in Tyndale's seizure, even as More languished in the Tower in 1535.Tyndale's New Testament, like the great majority of heretical publications, was published in octavo and was some 700 pages in length. 1 A cautious estimate of the print run is in the order of 3,000 and this quite possibly gives an indication of the impact such material might have, for it was common for those who could read to do so to small, like-minded gatherings.Hence the size of the audience for Tyndale's work must have been a concern to the ecclesiastical authorities. 2 In his Confutacyon of Tyndales answere, More grouped Tyndale with Luther and Huskyn as "hell houndes that the deuyll hath in his kenell" (176).Tyndale's exactitude was a problem for More: Tyndale identiied and managed to correct 70 "errours committed in the prentynge", with a further 70 given in a threepage list of errata, although he admits many others went unnoticed .As the demand for his work grew, so (as with Luther's work) did pirated copies.In the second edition Tyndale added marginal notes, or "set lyght in the mergent" (title page verso).hese were a textual tradition in religious works in manuscript and print, and they played a signiicant part in the developing relationship between marks of annotation and marks of quotation .However, marginal notes are time-consuming to set, and Tyndale oten only added explanatory notes or personal comments in his marginal text.hough these notes were superluous to the Biblical translation, Tyndale used marginal notes because he was concerned with the meaning, accuracy, and his readers' understanding, of the text.According to George Joye, Tyndale's one-time friend, John Frith, helped Tyndale work on his printed answers to More's Confutacyon "and corrected them in the prynte": a phrase that suggests Tyndale's attendance at the press (Joye sig.E1 v ). he second edition of the New Testament (1534) saw more than 5,000 changes, so bear witness to the title page statement "dylygently corrected and compared with the Greke…" stating in the epistle that he "weded oute…many fautes…therein" (title page verso).We have no reason to doubt these statements when we remember that Tyndale was motivated to propagate the scriptures in English and so was acutely concerned with the coherence of his translated text.
he lengthy dialogues which More published in refutation of Tyndale warned readers that the New Testament translation was dangerous because it "semed very lyke" good and wholesome doctrine.his was more dangerous than a less convincing counterfeit would have been, because "folke vnlernyd" would be unable to discern that it was heretical (A dyaloge fol.79 v ; sig.Diii v ).Because Tyndale's "mistranslation" is so convincing, More is forced to discuss at length Tyndale's word choices and why they signiied the wrong things ("elder men", "presbitari" or "prestis"?).Printed analysis that criticised the New Testament this closely was bound to encourage textual vigilance in Tyndale and his collaborators.Typographical errors would hinder the cause by fuelling More's argument that Tyndale's translation was untrustworthy, and a theological aberrance.his would appear to be the purpose behind the sermon preached by Cuthbert Tunstall, the Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cross on Sunday 28 October 1526, when Tunstall claimed to have found "errours three thousand and more" in Tyndale's New Testament (Moynahan 101).In these texts, then, a reputable alignment of type was either a sign of a judicious translation of Biblical meaning, or a dangerous imitation of both scripture and state-approved print: a pertinent reminder of the varieties of "ideal copy" that can arise in the printing of text.All the more reason to lean on others to make sure the copy accurately "set lyght" (Tyndale) to the text.
he Elizabethan Puritans had always been active in promoting their cause through the medium of the press and this in turn led to its continuing and systematic control by the state.In 1572, the authorities seized the authors of An admonition to the parliament…, John Field and homas Wilcox, but were unable to locate the press, for Archbishop Parker informed Lord Burghley, in a letter dated 25 August 1572 [he admonition] hath been twice printed, and now with additions… We wrote letters to the major [sic] and some of the aldermen of London to lie in wait for the charects [type] printer and corrector but I fear they deceive us.(Arber 13) Towards the end of the year homas Cartwright printed A second admonition…, which was rebufed by John Whitgit in An answere to a certen libel intituled An admonition… his was answered by Cartwright with A replye to an Answere… and printed in 1573 by John Stroud, who states that he had been for wante of healpe giuen bothe to worke at the presse to sette and to correcte: but also that I wanted the commoditie that other printers commonly haue of being neare eyther the auther or to some that is made priuie unto hys booke [for the purpose of correcting] (Simpson 122) he slight disjunction in Stroud's description between the implied pair in "bothe to", and the three ininitive verb forms (work, sette, correcte) tells us that correcting was a distinct activity.he naming of "corrector" as a distinct role by the authorities, along with Stroud's categorisation "to correcte" as a separate labour, conirms that prooing was a well-recognised stage of the printing process by the 1570s.Bühler also demonstrated that even in incunabula, the set up of lines was changed to correct errors "ater a number of copies of a quire had come of the press" (62).Another feature of the process as described by Bühler that seems to have carried over into the hand-press period is the probable involvement of the author in prooing.Bühler suggests that because the corrections made in Caxton's press were mostly conined to "introductory passages and colophons (Caxton's own compositions)", it is reasonable to suppose the alterations were "due" to Caxton himself, even if composition was not (63).Stroud's complaint that he had none of the usual assistance shows that inished copy in good condition was conventionally the work of many hands.
As Albright and McKerrow have shown, it was fairly common for authors to remain near at hand for the purposes of correcting or amending their text (Jackson 255).Authorial absence in the case of Cartwright's A replye to an Answere caused the printer, John Stroud, to append a short errata list of "faultes escaped in thys booke, besydes those whych are amended wyth the pen." Stroud was conscious of his shortcomings, not only as a corrector but also regarding the lack of variety of typefaces he could work with.Given a larger selection, he would have used diferent sets of "letters" for the Greek and Latin quotations, as was customary in Biblical printed texts.As it was, Stroud lamented that he was compelled (as a poore man doth one instrument to diuers purposes) so to vse one letter for three or foure tongues and being for wante of long training vp in thys mysterie not so skilfull to spie a faulte… (Simpson 122) In this set of events, further evidence of prooing procedures beyond the circumstantial exists in the fact that B1 and B2 have been inserted before the original B2, with the original B1 cancelled, indicating the incompleteness of the original B1, which had to be reset (Simpson 122).
While Stroud resorted to prooing by himself out of necessity, another illegal press from the same period enjoyed a better division of labour.Even before he let Rome in June 1580, the Jesuit Father Robert Persons had a mind to set up a local printing press in England.Within months of his arrival he selected a secluded property near a place called Greenstreet some seven miles from London.Persons was helped by the printer Stephen Brinkley, who was no stranger to the production of illegal material, for he had previously been involved in printing a number of recusant works.his set Persons at ease on two accounts: Brinkley was a safe pair of hands because of his idelity to the cause, and in his experience as a press overseer.Brinkley duly hired workmen, whom Persons expected would be "idelissimae operarum Catholicarum manus", that is, faithful to both their creed and copy.Although the location was secluded, security was tight, for Brinkley and his workmen came and went disguised as "gentlemen".Ater printing one book, the press was re-located to the house of Frances Browne, where it remained in use until March 1581, when it was moved again, this time to the home of Dame Cecilia Stonor near Henley.Yet, despite all the delays such upheavals must have caused, Persons notes in Domesticall diiculties that "Mr Stephen Brinkley … was the corrector and overseer" (Southern 355).
he press was seized on the 8 August and Brinkley was imprisoned, where he remained until 24 June 1583.On his release he immediately crossed the Channel and settled in Rouen where he continued to produce recusant books, again under the direction of Father Persons. he repeated movement of the press and the general uncertainty that surrounded the whole enterprise must have made the work diicult.Certainly the logistics could not have been easy: the dismantling of the press and its removal, together with the type and any stores of paper, would have generated a certain interest from the curious unless it was done in the utmost secrecy.Yet, we do have some evidence of the high quality of Brinkley's work.Richard Bristow, in his A Reply to Fulke (1588) addresses the reader …although I haue had great care and bene very diligent in the correcting thereof, yet because my Compositor was a straunger and ignorant of our English tongue and Orthographie, some faultes are passed vnamended of me (Sig.Eee4 v ).
Apologies for mistakes caused by printing in unfamiliar languages are fairly common, but some are erroneous and help to lay false trails as to the origins of printing.his is a good example for, although the imprint reads "Imprinted at Louaine by John Lion.Anno Dom.1580" it was printed at the Greenstreet House press by Brinkley.However, in his sympathetic study of Elizabethan recusant prose, Southern believes that Brinkley "produced one of the most correctly printed of all the Catholic recusant works" (358).A century later, the accuracy of printed text was still playing a part in religious debate.Between 1690-1710, Quaker and anti-Quaker pamphleteers in Philadelphia and New York were using the correcting of errors to deride one another's Christianity in print.Daniel Leeds, an ex-Quaker, published numerous rebukes and counter-rebukes to Caleb Pusey, William Penn and George Fox.In particular, Leeds attacked Fox for being scarcely able to write "Two lines of good Sence" (Fox-crat 6).his was an attempt to strike at a "signal part of the Quakers' faith -literacy" (Bonomi 122,236).he Quakers' development of "plain speech" was more than using language in an extremely literal manner, it was borne of their emphasis on God's word, and speaking truthfully.Speaking plainly therefore underpinned how they spoke to others, and how they expressed themselves in print (Bauman 44).Since their inception, the Society of Friends had been aware of how important the press would be in disseminating their beliefs and from an early period potential Quaker publications passed through a series of meetings before acceptance for publication was agreed.Once accepted, it was at the Meeting for Suferings that the iner details of production and distribution were discussed.hese included the selection of a printer (not always a Friend), the length of the print run as well as matters relating to circulation and distribution.It was also at this Meeting that printers would be reprimanded, if it was thought justiied (Bronner 57;Mortimer).Some may ind such extensive control of the press exercised by the Quakers ironic, given the circumstances under which they produced and distributed their works; however, the importance they attached to language and how they used it must not be underestimated.As in the case of the More-Tyndale pamphlet war of the 1530s, it is reasonable to assume that Leeds and his opponents would not have been satisied with issuing uncorrected copy to their readership.Because Leeds' criticism of the Quakers hinged on false plainness in word and deed, he would have needed to take care at the press.Faulty printing would undermine the integrity of his message, because of the emphasis Leeds had placed on the falsehood of his opponents' words.
Leeds was absent when his News of a trumpet sounding in the wilderness (1697) was irst printed, and he was not satisied with the results.He added a prefatory epistle to the "Friendly Reader" in which he partially excuses himself for errata in the main text, citing his absence and the press being "thronged with other work".his account of what went wrong suggests that usual prooing practice involved collaboration between authors and compositors.Leeds may have anticipated that many of his readers would be "Friendly" in the sense of belonging to the Society of Friends, making it all the more important that the text was free from distracting typographical mistakes.But perhaps because of the disruption to the usual order of things (or "throng" of work), the apology itself was marred by an unusual error.he irst edition's irst gathering has signatures on the verso. 3Because signatures on the verso are so rare, this example corroborates Moxon's assertion that printers' marks were routinely checked during prooing.hat this error crept in ater Leeds had thought it necessary to apologise for mistakes in the main text suggests that despite it being customary for the author to attend the press, authors were not solely responsible for the accuracy of text.Leeds' other explanation for the errors -the "throng" of work at the press -might suggest that despite the hardships of illegal printing, there would have been an editorial advantage in cases like that of Persons' tracts, where the press was dedicated solely to the work at hand.
It would be fair to say that the circumstantial evidence indicates prooing procedures were commonly carried out during the earlier hand-press period, not only in unlicensed material but also in other documents.Religious pamphlet wars reveal much about the organisation of prooing practices, because of the conlict between the need for hasty printing, and the desire to communicate theological ideals using "ideal copy".

Some Harder Facts
Not all evidence is so circumstantial or supericial.Robert Waldegrave was the printer of the irst four of the Marprelate tracts.hese were a small collection of illegal works produced by a group of dissenting Puritans, who used the press to lampoon the authority of bishops using satirical ridicule and theological arguments.he dissenters went under the collective nom de plume "Martin Marprelate".he main authors were Job hrockmorton and John Penry. he press was initially set up at Mosely, near Kingston, where the irst tract, An epistle to the terrible priests of the Confocation house was printed in October 1588.John Penry, the Welsh radical Puritan, took the proofs to Northampton, where Henry Sharpe, a highly inquisitive bookbinder, saw them.hese sheets were probably not a irst proof, as this would have been pulled and corrected immediately.If Penry was going to "revise" the work then he must have been aware of the risk of taking the sheets away from the relatively safety of the undiscovered press (Pierce 157).Such delays could only shorten the odds against discovery.
On completion of An epistle, the press was dismantled and moved to the north of England -to Sir Richard Knightly's Fawsley House, for it had been used to produce a number of other illegal Puritan works that were also printed by Waldegrave.Here the second tract, he epitome, was produced in November 1588.Searchers had already traced the press to Kingston, so it was decided to move once again, this time to Coventry.he next two tracts, he Minerall Conclusions (February 1589) and Hay any worke for Cooper (March 1589) were produced by Waldegrave and were his last for "Martin Marprelate".(By spring 1589 Waldegrave had become concerned with his association with the more extreme elements of Puritanism and decided to sever his association with the venture.)Work was not seriously afected, for another printer, John Hodgkins had been found and he provided two assistants, Tomlyn and Simmes.
Valentine Simmes is also known for his involvement with the printing of dramatic quartos at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries.hese relect a number of the inconsistencies found in other material of the same period, and go some way to underline Bowers' argument regarding the quality of work.his is seen when notionally diferent works are examined, but also diferent formes within the same work.Quality is variable, with corrections not necessarily improving the accuracy of the text, rather removing obvious errors, with no guarantee there has been reference to printer's copy.Simmes' tolerance of error, and the inconsistency we ind in his dramatic quartos, is a notable backdrop against which the recusant authors' eforts stand in sharp relief.Following Waldegrave's abandonment of the Marprelate project, the printers Hodgkins, Tomlyn and Simmes proceeded to Walston Manor, where a press had been set up.It was here the ith (authored by "Martin Junior") and sixth ("Martin Senior") Marprelate tracts were printed in July 1589.Waldegrave had timed his departure well, for at the end of August 1589, Hodgkins, his two assistants and the press were seized at Warrington. he commitment shown by the authorities in seeking out the press was maintained (as others were involved 4 ), for a note, purporting to come from Elizabeth I, is found in the state papers "Item: the examynacion of marten marp'late toe be thoroughlye persevered in".All three were tortured on the rack and it is from their confessions that details of the printing procedures come to light.Hodgkins' examination (regarding the printing of Martin Junior) revealed the exacting standards that hrockmorton had when overseeing the tracts' printing: …before the in[i]shinge of y t work m r hrock: came to them usinge there [their] print and expoundinge certaine obscure interlines unto the printers, demaunding further of the said hodgk: whether the said Symes and Tomlynes were itt men for the purpose…wherein Hodgk: then satisied him… (Pierce 333) It seems then that hrockmorton wanted to insert additional material.hat these were considered "obscure interlines" is further evidence of the exactitude which dissenting Puritan authors brought to their work.his testimony is conirmed by the independent confessions of the two assistants: Immediately ater his [hrockmorton] cominge he read that w ch was in printinge, and found fault in some place w th the orthography.hen he looked upon the written copy and bicause it was in diverse places interlined he asked Sim[m]es yf he could read the sayd place so interlyned, poynting him unto them.Among the w ch places ther were two, wherein Sim[m]es doubted.And Mr hrockmorton did p[re]sently read them distinctly and readily unto him.Ffurthermore at the sayd time he asked Hodgkins sotly in his eare, whether these examinants were good workmen and able to serve the turn: and Hodgkins answered yea (336).
hrockmorton's query, whether the "workmen" were able to "serve the turn", brings to mind the press as a mechanism, the workings of which included the people attending it (and departing it).To "turn" a text might mean correcting it into an "ideal" state; it might also be related to a "turn" as a single cycle of printing. 5In any case, hrockmorton's involvement in the "interlinings" was evidence of his complicity in the tract's message. he care taken over the printing extended to the next tract, for Hodgkins' confession continues: When "martin Senior" was in printinge Sim[m]es, thy examinate, p[er] using the copy found falt w th somethings in it towards the end as being written w th out sense whereupon Hodgkins cariinge ye copy to Harrison [Penry] he strooke owt certayne lines and interlined that w ch should be supplyed (339). he phrase "cariinge ye copy to Harrison" was added in the margin, signiicantly altering the meaning of the sentence.When neither Penry nor hrockmorton were present at the press, Simmes' confession records that "Simes him selfe was the onely corrector" and it is a reasonable assumption that in these instances the major concern would have been to amend the obvious printing errors rather than meddle with the text.
Frequent referrals to interlines and interlining in these testimonies reveals a connection between the material and metaphysical processes involved.he Marprelates were anxious to put across their theological message with the greatest accuracy, just as Tyndale had striven to correct his Biblical translation.Printing interpretations of scripture -especially recusant ones -required diligent attention, then, to parse the iner points of translation and doctrine.During periods of greater tolerance, readers took on some of the interpretative work equated with interlining.In Areopagitica (1644), John Milton advocates tolerance of nonconformist Christian texts on the basis that together they add to the "dissever' d peeces yet wanting to the body of Truth" (30).Applying this principle to prooing, one might say that the tradition of Biblical exegesis was seen as analogous to that of continual copy-editing, with the readership being trusted to ensure that what was printed was correct, both materially and theologically.Tyndale's "corrected and compared with the Greek" (quoted above) also equates prooing with "substantive" theological, editorial decision-making.
Following the failure of Cromwell's Protectorate, and the relative freedom of religious publication advocated by Milton, "Religious Sects" and "our late Civil Wars" were blamed for "many fantastical terms" and "outlandish phrases" with which English had been enlarged during the period of political and religious lux (Sprat 42). he glut of nonconformist pamphlets led to suspicion or cynicism about those who would "interline" a text.Ater the Restoration, Hamon L'Estrange (brother of Sir Roger, who was Surveyor of the Imprimery from 1662) criticised works where "the series of the story is ... enterlined [or] disturbed with matters independent" (208).For L'Estrange and his fellow Royalists, revisions and interlineations could have reminded them of the political "disturbance" of the "Interregnum": "independent" actors inserting themselves into the line of Royal succession.And during the Restoration, reinterpretation of Christian texts became the subject of similar suspicion, leading Andrew Marvell to warn against interlineation in the Biblical context: "No man ought to cheat another though to the true beliefe: Not by Interlining the Scripture" (sig.F4 v ).
Interlining in the service of theological accuracy as a routine practice might change our understanding of the author's role in the production of "ideal copy".In the case of the Marprelate tracts, discovering an individual behind the Marprelate persona matters less than the editorial principles, or even "house style", that "Martin" stood for.Jesse Lander suggests that critical focus on the uncertain identity of the Marprelate author(s) distorts our understanding of the tracts' signiicance.Instead of the aberrant printings of a lone eccentric, it is more accurate to think of the pamphlets as the work of a "remarkably extensive" print-production network (81).Despite the diicult conditions under which the pamphlets themselves were printed, the tracts' arguments rest on critique of errors in the print of their adversaries.Marprelate's targets, such as the Book of Common Prayer, used the uniformity of print to regulate belief and extend orthodoxy (Lander 85).Objections to certain translations of scripture, then, could be framed as criticism of lazy prooing.Whitgit's leaving uncorrected the "grose and vngodly faultes in the print" (F4 r ) in the Book of Common Prayer was presented by Marprelate as evidence of theological negligence.Print itself contributed to the deleterious efect of such errors; faults repeated in "many thousand of books" and through succeeding editions would have a vast, malign efect (Lander 87).Without carefully attending to errors in the text, and being willing to stop press if necessary to prevent the replication of faults, the Marprelate group's arguments would be defunct.Letting misprints stand in the copy could only undermine the cause.
It was "Martin Marprelate", who irst drew attention to "knaue hackwell the printer, which printed popishe and trayterous welche bookes in wales".Marprelate complained that "hackwell is at libertie to walke where he will, and permitted to make the most he could of his presse and letters". 6John Penry adds further information by referring to a publication "written in weltch, printed in an obscure caue in Northwales" (101). 7He identiied the work in a marginal note as Y drych Cristianogawl, [he Christian Mirror] a devotional text written by the Welsh seminary priest Robert Gwyn, who is believed to have travelled from Rome to England in 1580 with Robert Persons and Edmund Campion (January-McCann "Gwyn").Y drych was printed in 1585 or early 1586 in a cave thought to have been on the Great Orme, north Wales and is now widely believed to be the irst book to be printed in Wales. 8 he format of Y drych is octavo and the text runs to just under a total of 190 pages, the font used is Gothic for the most part, with biblical quotations and marginal references in Roman.However, the quality of the printing is suspect for it displays some evidence of hasty and at times careless work ).It appears when his Gothic font was exhausted, the printer resorted to the use of Roman.Overall, the quality of printing leaves something to be desired and perhaps indicates a printer with little experience.9 he general standard of work may be considered better than hrockmorton's and Penry's attempt at producing the irst sheet of the Protestatyon, but certain errors would not normally have survived a irst revise, for example the inverted running title on C2 r .he inking is variable with some pages over-inked 10 whilst others are under-inked.11 Spacing is poor and on occasion the text is out of alignment.With regard to the Welsh language, the division of monosyllables at the end of a line might be considered bizarre (Grufydd).12 In all, the evidence points to no author attending the press and a printer who was not familiar with the Welsh language, for on D4 v we note that "the printer was ignorant of the same language and of bad spirits or moods".his seems surprising, for the cave had been in continuous use by Welsh recusants for nine months before it was raided by William Griith, the local Justice of the Peace.Also, it is hard to believe that none of the occupants spoke Welsh, in fact it would be harder to believe that anyone in the cave spoke English. W know for certain that the Welsh-speaking Father William Davies, who oversaw the chapel that existed in the cave, was in constant attendance (January-McCann, Na all fod, vii).
his contrast in quality of the printed text with the Greenstreet House recusant press does seem surprising, considering the relation between those involved.Robert Gwyn, the author of Y drych, was born and brought up on the Llŷn peninsula, some 55 miles from the cave at Rhiwledyn, and was also a Welsh speaker.He was acquainted with Robert Persons in Rome and they travelled to England together, so he could be in no doubt regarding the importance Persons placed on the use of the press in their ministries.It is surprising, therefore, that Gwyn did not pay more attention to the printing of his own work.Also, hackwell, if he had been one of Brinkley's workmen, would have been aware of the quality of his work, but this does not seem to have inluenced hackwell to emulate "one of the most correctly printed of all the Catholic recusant works", as Southern claims of Brinkley's handiwork.Marprelate's comment on hackwell's liberty to "make the most he could of his presse and letters" may have been driven by the anxiety of discovery.For authors who would rather correct errors in the print (thereby increasing their risk of arrest), hackwell's "libertie" must have grated.Perhaps, too, Marprelate was derisive of the results: to "make the most" of one's printing apparatus, and still produce a text riddled with inconsistencies, might suggest carelessness that bordered on linguistic and religious negligence.
he printing of the seventh, and inal Marprelate tract, he protestatyon (September 1589), was an act of deiance on the part of Penry and hrockmorton.here was a press at Wolston Priory but no printer and since both had attended the press in the past, they set to the task of printing the tract themselves.his was not as simple as it had appeared to them, as the quality of the irst halfsheet shows.However, a competent printer was found to complete the 32-page tract. he diference between the irst half-sheet -which contains such basic weaknesses as crooked lines and uncorrected literals -and the rest of the work is dramatic.he poorly printed half-sheets were used to complete the print run, which makes the comparison a relatively easy task.Nowhere is a typical selection of errors more easily found than on the title page; most of those would have been corrected with the irst press-pull.For example not wih standing for not withstanding t:rannous for tyrannous a ssayling for assayling

Pnblished for Published
Other basic mistakes occur, such as lack of reasonable spacing throughout the title page, and normally these would have been corrected or amended in the usual course of prooing.Also, at the bottom of the title page in the copy held at Lambeth Palace Library the type has been over-inked, on one copy at least, to such an extent that the print is diicult to read (Pierce 193).Such badly inked sheets normally would not have been used, but replaced before the work was collated.Usually, those blemishes that did not afect the understanding of the text, such as raised quads, and corrections that had a mainly visual impact, we would expect to have been dealt with immediately.(his hierarchy of error might have been the basis of the distinction between the interventions that a printer like Simmes would have been authorised to make, and those for which he had to defer to Penry.)On a general level, all the Marprelate tracts exhibit a reasonable quality of workmanship, especially so for those tracts for which Waldegrave was responsible.he exception is he protestatyon, and even here the poor quality of workmanship is limited to the irst half-sheet.his is made all the more remarkable when the circumstances of their printing are taken into consideration.he great majority of the textual errors are single-word misprints and therefore do not seriously inhibit the understanding of the texts.Excluding he protestatyon, only Hay any worke for Cooper exhibits a serious title page fault, and this is in the form of an omission (though there are the accidentals "hublication" and "beceytfull", too).A brief list of "Falts escaped" was printed on the inal leaf of An Epistle, directly below the closing salutations of "Martin the Metropolitane".On line ten of the title page the reader is asked to insert ater "…Chaplaine)" the phrase "hath shown himselfe in his late Admonition to the People of England" (48).his is quite an extensive "interline" for any reader to attempt, especially on the shaped lineation of a title page.Martin asks his readers to "Beare with" his other errors, a request with which they have been conditioned to comply, as throughout the epistle "Martin" has interwoven religious debate with comments on the circumstances of its printing.On the title page, the pseudonymous author claims to have both "Penned and compiled" the work, which adds to the picture given in the testimonies of Hodgkins and his helpers of continual authorial "interlining" throughout the printing process, because it suggests a multi-stage, multi-media writing efort.Further to the attention he draws to successive rounds of editing involved in producing the tract, "Martin" argues with his opponents on the basis of their textual emendations.He mocks them for having "pasted the word can vpon the word dare" (38); "patching" aggressive statements into more moderate ones opens the bishops to accusations of being "patches" themselves.Inconsistencies in their "consciences" are exposed by their disordered prooing methods.
Press restrictions continued ater the death of Elizabeth I, through the reign of James I and into the reign of Charles I. As the Court of Star Chamber and the bishops tightened their control over the press it was oten safer to alter the text ater receiving the licenser's imprimatur. he correctors of the press made such a complaint to the king in 1635.Still, some printers continued to operate outside the licensing system.In 1662, John Twyn printed the unlicensed (and seditious) A treatise of the execution of justice and felt the full weight of the king's justice for his actions.At his trial, the prosecution states in its opening address to the court: We shall prove that this Prisoner … did … Print the sheets, Correct the Proofs and Revise them all in his own house, which were corrected and brought back into the Workhouse by himself, in so short a time that they could not be carryed abroad to Correct, so that he must needs Correct them himself (Exact Narrative 12).
were necessary.Multi-stage correction, as is apparent from Creek's interrogation, meant involving lots of people.When asked who ordered him to print the books in question, Creek answered "[t]hey all gave me order together".Asked to clarify, he names three men: Brewster, Calvert and Chapman.Creek's testimony reveals that collaboration through the successive stages of printing was vital to the completion of Brewster's book.
hese examples show that printers were prepared to carry out some or all of the three traditionally accepted stages of correction -press-pulls and revises; stop-press corrections and cancellation -to varying degrees.Also, the number of times the sheets were sent from the press for correction is surprising and surely relects more than just a passing interest in achieving the minimum acceptable standard in the text.his is further indicated by the rare example of John Stroud, who went to the trouble of cancelling a leaf, resetting B1 and B2 and inserting the corrected cancellans (see Simpson). 13No simple conclusions can be drawn from these tentative excursions, and the varying quality of the Marprelate tracts can testify to this.We see the calculated risk taken by Penry when he took the early sheets of An Epistle away from the press for revision on the one hand, and the rather frenzied approach to the production of the irst half-sheet of he protestatyon, on the other.
he printing of Tyndale's New Testament was to such a high standard that ater some 85 years the panel of 54 divines appointed by James I to revise the New Testament incorporated nine tenths of it verbatim.Returning to the notion of "ideal copy" and editorial interpretations of it, the religious motives of Tyndale, "Marprelate" and the Quakers constitute a profound dedication to the idea of "perfect" copy.At the same time, the varying eforts of nonconformist printers of all stripes demonstrate one profound obstacle to the attainment of "perfect" copy. he Christian God could not be in attendance at the press to correct errors in the print."Perfect" copy of His word was no more feasible than uniformity of doctrine between the "dissever' d" factions of the Church.Given that prooing practices were shaped by theological perfectionism, printers such as Brinkley and Waldegrave were also motivated by ideals other than inancial gain and therefore would not shirk from such necessary steps as revision in the course of printing.In the end Waldegrave was not only imprisoned, but had also to see his tormentors "spoyle his presse and letters", just as Andrew Sowle had to endure the destruction of his press and stock in the following century (Cooper 39; Andrews).Certainly, loyalty "to both creed and copy" was not to the printers' beneit. 14hrockmorton's doubts about Simmes' abilities to refer to copy suggest that recusants and dissenters were less willing to "bear with" faults introduced by printers than with their own.he beliefs they were defending in their recusant literature were bound up with the collaborative (im)practicalities of printing and dissemination of the texts themselves.Without extensive networks of fellow believers, neither Tyndale's New Testament, nor the Marprelate tracts could have been printed well enough to take their place in the system of religious debate, refutation, and reply."Ideal copy" was integral to the practice of religious and political resistance throughout the hand-press period.Dissenters, Quakers and recusant authors all wanted to convey corrective ideas, and their arguments could stand or fall on the quality of their copy.But as Penry and hrockmorton found, without the help of compositors and correctors to proof and revise, printing a text whose quality did justice to the authors' particular beliefs was impossible.Despite the heightened risk of discovery, the beliefs laid out in illegally-printed works justiied the efort of prooing.hese works are evidence of a process which embodied the ideal of collaboration, both on a mechanical level (the setting and amending of type) and a semantic one (the conveyance of meaning through reading, writing and speaking, and the resulting shit in beliefs).Little wonder, then, that all involved were asked to serve their turn.Notes 1. he octavo format had some advantages.Measuring approximately six inches by four inches it could it neatly in the palm of a hand and so was easily concealed.
2. Daniell believed that by 1534 there were reckoned to have been over 30,000 copies of Tyndale's that was printed in Worms (including pirated editions) circulating in England.See Moynahan 107. 5. 'turn' , n., 2. a; 9. Oxford English Dictionary, 2 nd edition.
8. Its precise location remains unknown.However, a raid on a cave in the area of Rhiwledyn is reported in a letter (dated 19 April 1587) from the local Justice of the Peace to the Archbishop of Canterbury.A force of some 20 entered the cave only to ind it deserted except for food, weapons and 'Printtes of leade & spaces' (Rogers).9. hackwell is otherwise untraceable.Grufydd suggests a number of rather tenuous links between Y drych and two of Robert Person's books, both printed by Brinkley.He contends that there is a signiicant resemblance between the general layout and the deployment of Gothic and Roman fonts in Y drych, and Brinkley's printings of Person's works.He also notes that only four workmen were apprehended with Brinkley in August 1581, even though in June Brinkley employed seven workmen.
12. A large debt of gratitude is owed to Mr Ffrangcon Lewis who provided a translation from the Welsh.
13. 'But more important, as showing the make-up of the book is the fact that B.
3. ESTC R11241.Copies checked in University of Oxford, Christ Church College WH.8.25;St. Paul's Cathedral; Huntington library 9792, Wing L914.Haverford College has a manuscript entitled Corrections of a Trumpet Sounding in the Wilderness, but there is not enough information to say whether or not this was Leeds' own manuscript copy, or prooing 'boke' .4. Carlson (21-2) suggests that 'at least 23 persons were involved' in the production and distribution of the Martin Marprelate tracts.