Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-06-12
AUTHORSHIP THEN AND NOW.

a State and nation.
AUTHORSHIP THEN AND NOW.
After King Solomon expressed the
thought that 'of making of many
books there is no end, it was some two
thousand years before the art of print
ing was invented. Copying ain indeh-
mite number of manuscripts with the
style or pen was a very different labor
from that of printing, by the use OF
type made Of metal or wood. Type re-
peats the sameletters, spaces, stops and
marks with no variation exceptthe pos
sible change from the wear OF the
metal. Such foe simile pen-work by the
human hand in writing, is impractical
bio; and in multiplying books in man
uscript copies probably no two were
ever Just alike. Errors were thous-
and fold nf5re likely to creep in on
every page, SO that after these pages
had been copied few hundred times
in few centuries, chestnut horse and
a horse chestnut would come to mean
the same thing.
In the earliest stages of literature,
there were no publishers in the modern
sense. Before the introduction of
printing, the manner of publishing a
book in England was to have 1t read
on three days successfully before one of
the universities, ON some other recog-
nized authority. If it met with appro-
baton, copies of it were then permit
ted to be made by monks, scribes, IL
luminators and readers-men trained
in the art, who made a living in many
cases by this handicraft. 1t does not
appear that any part of their gains
were ever paid to the author of the
book to compensate for his brain work.
By the fulsome laudation of the digni-
taries of Church and State, literary la
Dor was held as not unworthy of some
crumbs from the tables of the great; and,
the consideration of authors increasing
with the increase of persons able to
read, they became the pensioners OF
kings, queens, bishops and mobiles, who
loved the fattery of book ded-
ications. In time, this source
of income became very considerable.
Chaucer was once a pensioner-yeoman
of Edward Ill, but was subsequently
employed to hire ships for the Kings
service and as a clerk in the Gus
toms. A modern poet who specially
claims to call Chaucer MASTER" pic
! lures
''The clear Thames bOrdered by its gardens
While nigh the thronged wharf Godfrey Chau-
GERS pen
Moves over bills of lading."
Poetry, literature, and bills of lading
have little IN common; yet it is affirmed
that the year in which the Canterbury
Tales were written, Chaucer was ap-
pointed clerk of the kings works at
Windsor. In after years, and to the
close of his life, he was wholly depend
ent on his royal pensions and grants of
wine.
Dependence and bondage were the
primary and natural condition of au-
thors for upwards of three centuries in
England; and even now their enamel
patton is far from being perfect. Queen
Elizabeth designed a pension for
Spencer, but for some reason it was
withheld by Burleigh. One may judge
the bitter experience of the poet from
whose pen the following complaint was
extorted:
s.FulI little knowest thou that hast not tried,
| What hell il is in suing long 20 bide:
| To lose good DAYS that might be better spent,
| To waste long nights in peEsive discOntenti
| To speed to-day, TO be put back tomorrow;
| To feed on hope, to pine with lear and sOrrOWi
To have thy princess grace, yet want her peers;
/ To have thy asking, vet wait many years;
| To fret thy soul with crosses and with care;
| To eat thy heart with cOmfortless despair;
| To fawn, to crouch, TO wait, TO ride, to run,
| To spend, 10 give, TO want, to be undone."
James l. granted letters patent under
the great seal of John Stowe, historian,
permitting him "to ask, gather and
take the aims of all our loving SUBJ
jects." This regularly licenced beggar
had his letters patent readily the clergy
from the pulpit of each parish he WIS.,
tied. Think of learned man follow
ing one month the profession of
proper mendicant, begging food and
raiment from house to house, for him
self and family, and the next month
writing the history of his country, its
sovereigns, parliaments, courts of law,
cities, wars, and achievements in
peace! In an age when very few could
read writing, books was a poor trade,
no matter how great the authors genius.
Spencer had a Just horror of fawning
that thrift might follow, yet he pre-
fixed to the ''Faerie Queen" seventeen
dedicatory sonnets, the last of which
was inscribed ITO all the gracious and
beautiful ladies in the Court" This
was spreading his net pretty wide; but,
over and above these outer dedications,
the invocation with which the poem
opens is addressed to Queen Elizabeth
herself, along with the sacred Muse.
Venus, Cupid and Mars. Elizabeth is
the ''Faerie Queen" to whom the whole
work is dedicated, presented and conse-
Grated, "to live with the eternitie of her
| fame"
Fuller has introduced in his Church
History, twelve special tit!e-pages be-
sides the general one, and on each a
separate dedication. To a translated
work, Sylvester added seventy dedica-
tions; and where there was no public
or next to none, and the author person
ally knew most of his readears, why
not name them all in his written or
printed missive? Disraeh tells us of