his "Corpus Juris Canonici," 1500, allays the fear of the public with a distich :-" Don't run away on account of the price," he says. "Come rich and poor; this excellent work is sold for a very small sum: " Ne fugite ob pretium : dives pauperque venite Hoc opus excellens venditur ære brevi. Berthold Remboldt subjoins to his edition of "S. Bruno on the Psalms," 1509, the information that he does not lock away his wares (books) like a miser, but that anybody can carry them away for very little money. Istas Bertholdus merces non claudit avarus Exigius nummis has studiose geres. And in his "Corpus Juris Canonici," he boasts that this splendid volume is to be had for a trifling sum, after having, with considerable labour, been weeded of its misprints. Hoc tibi præclarum modico patet ære volumen Thielman Kerver, Jean Petit, and various other printers, give similar intelligence to the purchasers of their works. Sometimes they even resort to the process of having a book puffed on account of its cheapness by editors or scholars of known eminence, who address the public on behalf of the printer. Thus in a work termed by the French savant Chevillier, "Les Opuscules du Docteur Almain," printed by Chevalon and Gourmont, 1518, a certain dignified member of the University condescends to inform the public that they have to be grateful to the publishers for the beautiful and cheap book they have produced :-" Gratias agant Claudio Chevallon et Ægydio Gourmont, qui pulchris typis et characteritus impressum opus hoc vili dant pretio." This, be it observed, is the earliest instance of the puff direct which has so far been discovered. Meanwhile, though the art of printing had become established, and was daily taking more and more work out of the hands of scribes, writing continued to be almost the only advertising media for wellnigh two centuries longer. Like the ancient advertisement already noticed, that of Venus about her runaway son, they commenced almost invariably with the words "If anybody," or, if in Latin, Si quis; and from these last two words they obtained their name. They were posted in the most frequented parts of the towns, preferably near churches; and hence has survived the practice of attaching to church doors lists of voters and various other notifications, particularly in villages. In the metropolis one of the places used for this purpose may probably have been London Stone. In "Pasquil and Marforius," 1589, we read, "Set up this bill at London Stone; let it be done solemnly with drum and trumpet ;" and further on in the same pamphlet, "If it please them, these dark winter nights, to stick up these papers upon London Stone." These two allusions are, however, not particularly conclusive. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the principal place for affixing a siquis was in the middle aisle of St Paul's. From the era of the Reformation to the Restoration, all sorts of disorderly conduct was practised in the old cathedral. A lengthy catalogue of improper customs and disgusting practices might be collected from the works of the period, and bills were stuck up in various parts to restrain the grossest abuses. At every door of this church," says Weever," was anciently this vers depicted; and in my time [he died in 1632] it might be perfectly read at the great south door, Hic Locus sacer est, hic nulli mingere fas est." There were also within the sacred edifice tobacco, book, and sempstress' shops; there was a pillar at which servingmen stood for hire, and another place where lawyers had their regular stands, like merchants on 'Change. At the period when Decker wrote his curious "Gull's Horn-Book" (1609), and for many years after, the cathedral was the lounging place for all idlers and hunters after news, as well as of men of almost every profession, cheats, usurers, and knights of the post. The cathedral was likewise a seat of traffic and negotiation, even pimps and procuresses had their stations there; and the font itself, if credit may be given to a black-letter tract on the "Detestable Use of Dice-play," printed early in Elizabeth's reign, was made a place for the advance and payment of loans, and the sealing of indentures and obligations for the security of the moneys borrowed. Such a busy haunt was, of course, the very best place for bills and advertisements to be posted. No bonâ fide siquis has come down to us, but it appears that among them the applications for ecclesiastics were very common, as Bishop Earle in his "Microcosmographia," published in 1629, describes "Paul's Walke" as the "market of young lecturers, whom you may cheapen here at all rates and sizes;" and this allusion is confirmed by a passage in Bishop Hall's "Satires (B. ii. s. 5), in which also the custom of affixing advertisements to a particular door is distinctly noticed : Saw'st thou ere siquis patch'd on Paul's church door Who wants a churchman that can service say, Read fast and fair his monthly homily, And wed, and bury, and make cristen souls, But the siquis door was not confined to notices of ecclesiastical matters; it was appropriated generally to the variety of applications that is now to be found in the columns of a newspaper or the books of a registry office. Though no authentic specimens of the siquis remain, we are possessed of several imitations, as the old dramatists delighted in reproducing the inflated language of these documents. Thus, in Holiday's "Technogamia" (1618), Act i. scene 7, Geographus sets up the following notice : If there be any gentleman that, for the accomplishing of his natural endowment, intertaynes a desire of learning the languages; especially F the nimble French, maiestik Spanish, courtly Italian, masculine Dutch, happily compounding Greek, mysticall Hebrew, and physicall Arabicke; or that is otherwise transported with the admirable knowledge of forraine policies, complimentall behaviour, naturall dispositions, or whatsoever else belongs to any people or country under heaven; he shall, to his abundant satisfaction, be made happy in his expectation and successe if he please to repair to the signe of the Globe. Again, Ben Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour" introduces Shift, "a threadbare shark," whose "profession is skeldring and odling, his bank Paul's." Speaking of Shift in the opening scene of the third act, which the dramatist has laid in "the middle aisle of Paules," Cordatus says that Shift is at that moment in Paules "for the advancement of a siquis or two, wherein he hath so varied himselfe, that if any one of them take, he may hull up and doune in the humorous world a little longer." Shift's productions deserved to succeed, as they were masterpieces of their kind, and might even now, though the world is so much older, and professes to be so much wiser, be studied with advantage by gentlemen who cultivate the literature of advertisements in the interest of certain firms. Here are some of his compositions, which would certainly shine among the examples of the present day : If there be any lady or gentlewoman of good carriage that is desirous to entertain to her private uses a young, straight, and upright gentleman, of the age of five or six and twenty at the most; who can serve in the nature of a gentleman usher, and hath little legs of purpose,* and a black satin suit of his own to go before her in; which suit, for the more sweetening, now lies in lavender;† and can hide his face with her fan if need require, or sit in the cold at the stair foot for her, as well as another gentleman; let her subscribe her name and place, and diligent respect shall be given. * Small calveless legs are mentioned as characteristic of a gentleman in many of our old plays, and will be observed in most full-length portraits of the sixteenth and seventeenth century. To "lie in lavender" was a cant term for being in pawn. The following is even an improvement : If this city, or the suburbs of the same, do afford any young gentleman of the first, second, or third head, more or less, whose friends are but lately deceased, and whose lands are but new come into his hands, that, to be as exactly qualified as the best of our ordinary gallants are, is affected to entertain the most gentlemanlike use of tobacco; as first to give it the most exquisite perfume; then to know all the delicate, sweet forms for the assumption of it; as also the rare corollary and practice of the Cuban ebolition, euripus and whiff,* which we shall receive or take in here at London, and evaporate at Uxbridge, or farther, if it please him. If there be any such generous spirit, that is truly enamour'd of these good faculties; may it please him but by a note of his hand to specify the place or ordinary where he uses to eat and lie; and most sweet attendance with tobacco and pipes of the best sort, shall be ministered. Stet quæso, candide lector. It is noticeable that most of these advertisements commence with the English equivalent for the Latin si quis, and furthermore that Ben Jonson concludes with the same formula as Caxton, stet quæso, imploring the "candid reader" not to tear off the bill. The word siquis is of frequent occurrence in the old writers. Green, for instance, in his "Tu Quoque," says of certain women that "they stand like the devil's siquis at a tavern or alehouse door." At present the term has more particular reference to ecclesiastical matters. A candidate for holy orders who has not been educated at the University, or has been absent some time from thence, is still obliged to have his intention proclaimed, by having a notice to that effect hung up in the church of the place where he has recently resided. If, after a certain time, no objection is made, a certificate of his siquis, signed by the churchwardens, is given to him to be presented to the bishop when he seeks ordination. At the time when the siquis was the most common form *Tricks performed with tobacco smoke were fashionable amongst⚫ the gallants of the period, and are recommended in Decker's "Gull's Horn-Book," and commended in many old plays. Making rings of smoke was a favourite amusement in those days. |