AN HONEST STATIONER

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of his hands. If he be a Printer, he makes conscience to exemplefy his Coppy fayrely, & truly. If he be a Booke-bynder; he is carefull his worke may bee strong & serviceable. If he be a seller of Bookes, he is no meere Bookeseller (that is) one who selleth meerely ynck & paper bundled vp together for his owne advantage only; but he is the Chapman of Arts, of wisedome, & of much experience for a litle money. He would not publish a booke tending to schisme, or prophannesse, for the greatest gain: & if you see in his shopp, any bookes vaine or impertinent; it is not so much to be imputed his fault, as to the vanity of the Tymes: For when bookes come forth allowed by authority, he holds it his duty, rather to sell them, then to censure them: Yet, he meddles as little as he can, with such as he is truly perswaded are pernitious, or altogether unprofitable.

The reputation of Schollers, is as deare unto him as his owne: For, he acknowledgeth, that from them, his Mystery had both begining and meanes of continuance. He heartely loves & seekes the prosperity of his owne Corporation: Yet he would not injure the Universityes, to advantage it, norbe soe sawcie as to make comparisons betweene them. He loves a good Author as his Brother, and will be ready to yeeld him the due portion of his labors, without wrangling.

In a word, he is such a man that the State ought to cherish him; Schollers to love him; good Customers to frequent his shopp; and the whole Company of Stationers to pray for him; . . .

A meere Stationer

A MEERE Stationer is he that imagines he was borne altogether for himselfe, and exercizeth his Mystery without any respect either to the glory of God, or the publike advantage. For which cause, he is one of the most pernitious superfluities in a Christian gover[n]ment, and may be well termed the Devills seedman; seeing he is the aptest Instrument to sowe schismes, heresies, scandalls, and seditions through the world. What booke soever he may have hope to gaine by, he will divulge; though it contayne matter against his Prince, against the State, or blasphemy against God; And all his excuse wil be, that he knew not it comprehended any such matter. For (give him his right) he scarcely reads over one page of a booke in seaven yeare, except it be some such history as the Wise men of Gotham; and that he doth to furnish himselfe with some foolish conceits to be thought facetious. He prayseth no booke, but what sells well, and that must be his owne Coppy too or els he will have some flirt at it: No matter, though there be no cause; For, he knowes he shall not be questioned for what hee sayes; or if he be, his impudence is enough to outface it. What he beleeves is prepared for him, in the next world, I know not, but, for his enriching in this life, he is of so large a faith, that he seemes to beleeve, all Creatures and Actions of the world, were ordayned for no other purpose but to make bookes upon, to encrease his trade: And if another man, of his small understanding, should heare him plead his owne supposed right where none might contradict;

A MEERE STATIONER

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He would halfe thinke, that all our Universityes, and Schooles of Learning, were erected to no other end, but to breed Schollers to study for the enriching of the Company of Stationers. He will fawne upon Authors at his first acqu[a]intance, & ring them to his hive, by the promising sounds of some good entertainement; but assoone as they have prepared the hony to his hand, he drives the Bees to seek another Stall. If he be a Printer, so his worke have such appearance of being well done, that he may receave his hyre, he cares not how unworkmanlike it be parformed; nor how many faults he lett goe to the Authors discredit, & the readers trouble. If his employment be in bynding bookes; soe they will hold together but till his worke Maister hath sold them, he desireth not, they should last a weeke longer: For, by that meanes a booke of a Crowne is mard in one Moneth, which would last a hundred yeares, if it had 2d. more workmanshipp; & so, their gaine & employment is encreased to the subjects losse. If he be a seller of Bookes; he makes no conscience what trash he putts off: nor how much he takes, for that which is worth nothing. He will not stick to belye his Authors intentions, or to publish secretly that there is somewhat in his new ymprinted books, against the State, or some Honorable personages; that so, they being questioned his ware may haue the quicker sale. He makes no scruple to put out the right Authors Name, & insert another in the second edition of a Booke; And when the impression of some pamphlet lyes upon his hands, to imprint new Titles for yt, (and so take mens moneyes twice or thrice, for the same matter

under diverse names) is no injury in his opinion. If he gett any written Coppy into his powre, likely to be vendible; whether the Author be willing or no, he will publish it; And it shall be contrived and named alsoe, according to his owne pleasure: which is the reason, so many good Bookes come forth imperfect, and with foolish titles. Nay, he oftentymes giues bookes such names as in his opinion will make them saleable, when there is litle or nothing in the whole volume sutable to such a Tytle.

To conclude, he is a dangerous excrement, worthy to be cutt off, by the State; to be detested of all Schollers; to be shun'd of all the people; & deserves to be curst, & expeld out of the Company of Stationers.

JOHN EARLE (1601-1665)

Micro-cosmographie. Or, A Peece of The World Discovered; In Essayes And Characters. London,... for Edward Blount, 1628.

54 characters.

The fift edition 1629.

I2mo.

77 characters. The last seven in the selection first appeared in this.

12 editions in the 17th century. Many since. A useful one is in the Temple Classics series, this includes the first reprint of Healey's translation of Theophrastus. 78 characters.

Overbury' is often intent on playing with the superficial, Earle on registering with quiet humour what the superficial meant. Some of his most skilful analyses are of colourless types which were usually ignored, because their appeal becomes most evident only when such an observer as Earle can treat their situation as a problem of psychology. His sympathetic studies of such as a poor man, or a weak man, not only describe these types, but make them newly intelligible. Earle is the most contemplative writer of all who followed the characterfashion, but, unlike others of this quality, he can make his points with the incisiveness of Overbury at his best. He gives us the Plodding Student in a sentence, ' His Studie is not great but continuall, and consists much in the sitting up till after Mid-night in a rug-gowne, and a Night-cap to the vanquishing perhaps of some sixe lines.'

6

'Nothing angers' the Shee-precise Hypocrite so much as that Women cannot Preach, and in this point onely thinkes the Brownist erroneous. Her point was touched on by the satirist who chose the inscription on the woodcut for his sketch of a Brownist, or Lucifers Lacky (the 12. of December. 1641'). The cut had already appeared,