49. Hick Scorner.

A curious play, printed without date by Wynkyn de Worde. It is of a comical nature, and satirizes some of the vices and follies of the age. Reprinted by Hawkins, 1773, vol. i. It is thus alluded to, in Udall's Apothegms of Erasmus, 1564:

66

Sophistrie dooeth no helpe, use, ne service to doings in Publique affaires or bearing offices in a common weale, whiche publique offices who so is a suiter to have, it behoveth the same not to plaie Hicke Skorner with insolubles and with idle knackes of sophisticacions, but rather to frame and facion himself to the maners and condicions of menne, and to bee of soche sort as other men be."

50. The new Guise.

Laneham perhaps refers to the interlude of "Newe Custom," 4to., 1573, a piece written for the purpose of vindicating and promoting the Reformation.

51. Impatient Poverty.

A poetical interlude, an edition of which, dated 1560, is mentioned in the Biographia Dramatica, p. 328. This drama is alluded to in the play of Sir Thomas More, p. 55, where Mr. Dyce, in a note, incorrectly asserts that it is not extant. According to the title-page, "four men may well and easelye playe this interlude.”

52. Breviary of Health.

A well-known work by Andrew Borde, first printed in 1547. According to Wood, he was "esteemed a noted poet, a witty and ingenious person, and an excellent physician." Hearne ascribes the origin of Merry Andrew to this humourist, to whom the "Merry Tales of the Wise Men of Gotham" are commonly attributed.

53. Broom on the Hill, &c.

Some of the ballads here mentioned still exist. Ritson has printed two of them, and another, " By a bank as I lay," is given in Collier's Extracts, p. 193.

54. Jasper Laet.

"An almanacke and prognostication, composed by John Laet of Antwerp," 12mo., 1559.

55. Nostradam.

One of the treatises of this astrologer was published at London in 1559, entitled, "An excellent tretise, shewing suche perillous and contagious infirmities as shall insue 1559 and 1560," 12mo. Dibdin (No. 2733) mentions an "Almanacke for the yeare 1559, composed by Mayster Mych. Nostrodamus," 8vo.

56. John Securis.

In the Bodleian Library is preserved "A newe Almanacke for the yere of our Lord God, 1567, practised in Salisbury by Maister John Securis, Phisitian."

Some letters on the subject of these tracts have recently appeared in the "Gentleman's Magazine," among which may be mentioned a very interesting one by Mr. W. Reader, part of the materials having been furnished from my notes. The above, however, will be found to be a more complete description of the pieces which compose this celebrated collection. It may, perhaps, be questioned whether Laneham really saw all these tracts in the possession of Captain Cox. It may be that the Captain was known to be curious in such matters, and that Laneham merely strung together the titles of tracts of a similar character, as they occurred to his memory, and in fact made the catalogue. It is unnecessary to add that, on either supposition, Laneham's list is equally curious. J. O. HALLIWELL.

ART. IV.―Richard Field, (the printer of Shakespeare's “Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece") Nathaniel Field, Anthony Munday, and Henry Chettle.

Most of the Members of our Society will recollect that Richard Field was the printer of the first, second, and third editions of Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis:" the two first have, "Imprinted by Richard Field," at full length on the title-pages, while to the last only his initials are appended. He was also the printer of the first edition of "Lucrece,” which was "Printed by Richard Field for John Harison." How did it happen that our great dramatist employed Field for the purpose? This is a question to which I am about to give a distinct answer.

The fact is, that Field was a fellow-townsman of Shakespeare: he came from Stratford-upon-Avon, and was son to the very "Henry Field, late of Stratford-upon-Avon, in the county of Warwick, tanner," whose "goods and chattels" John Shakespeare, the father of our great dramatist, was employed, with two others, to value in August, 1592 (see Collier's Life of Shakespeare, i., cxlii). This is a curious, though I cannot call it an important, circumstance in the history of Shakespeare and his works; and it may either show his desire to give employment to a young man who came from the same town, or that the young man, knowing that Shakespeare had such productions by him ready for the press, had solicited an opportunity of employing his skill upon them.

In my "Life of Shakespeare" I have expressed a decided opinion that both "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece" were written "before their author left his home in Warwickshire;" and I added a conjecture, that Richard Field might be the son of Henry Field, the tanner (p. cxliv). This conjecture turns out to be well founded.

The fact is established beyond dispute by the Registers of

the Stationers' Company, which, as the members of our Society know, I have recently been examining for a different purpose. One portion of these Registers consists of a list of the apprentices bound to different printers and booksellers, and among them, under date of 10th August, 1579, I read the following:

Rychard Feylde, sonne of Henry Feilde, of Stratford upon Avon, in the countye of Warwick, Tanner, hath put him selfe apprentis to george bishop, citizen and stacioner of london, for vij yeres from Michaelmas next."

The fee paid for the registration was in all cases 2s. 6d. ; and immediately after the above entry is the subsequent note, which is important in the biography of Richard Field, because he married one of the daughters, not of George Bishop, but of the person from whom he first learned the art and mystery of printing.

"It is agreed that this Apprentis shall serve the first vj yeres of his apprentiship with the said Vautrollier, [whose name is inserted in the margin of the book] to learne the art of printinge, and the vijth. yere with the said g. bishop."

The time of Richard Field's servitude would therefore expire in 1586; and on 7th February, 1591, we find him taking an apprentice himself, that apprentice being his own younger brother: the memorandum runs thus :

"Jasper Feild, son of Henry Field, of Stratford upon Avon, in the county of Warwick, Tanner, hath put him selfe an Apprentice to Ric. Feild, citizen and stacioner of London, for seven yeres from the date hereof."

When, therefore, Richard Field printed and published "Venus and Adonis" in 1593, and printed "Lucrece” in

1594, he had been for some years established in business. He had married Vautrollier's daughter in 1588. —(Lives of the Actors in Shakespeare, p. 223.)

The inclination of my opinion is, that Shakespeare went to Richard Field and employed him in printing his earliest production, both as regards the writing and printing of it, because he was a fellow-townsman, and wished to render him a service. There can be no doubt that Field executed the task entrusted to him well, for whether our great dramatist did or did not correct the press, (I think that in this instance he did) "Venus and Adonis" is not only the most accurately but the most handsomely printed of any of Shakespeare's works. "Lucrcce" comes near it in excellence of typography, and the types employed are the same; but the literal errors, though still few, are rather more numerous.

The Registers of the Stationers' Company contain an interesting record respecting another Field, much more celebrated, one of the original actors in the dramas of our great dramatist, whose name fills a prominent place in the list of principal performers prefixed to the folio of 1623. It was, therefore, my business to supply such particulars as I could furnish regarding him in the volume of the "Lives of the Actors;" but I was not then aware that Nathaniel Field, the player, had begun life as a printer and stationer. Such was the case, as appears decisively from the following quotation, which bears date 7 February, 1597.

"Nathaniel Feild, son of John Feild, late of London, Clerk, deceased, hath put him selfe apprentice to Raffe Jackson, Citizen and Stationer of London, for eight yeres from Michaelmas last past."

The word "clerk" of course refers to the clerical profession of N. Field's father, who is said to have been "deceased," and who was buried, as we know, (Lives of the Actors, p. 207)