A Looking-Glass for Traytors, and Treason Rewarded at Tiburn

EEBO link for "A Looking-Glass for Traytors"

EEBO link for "Treason Rewarded at Tiburn"

Both of these ballads have the same woodcut, which depicts three frames. In the first (upper) frame, a bound man is dragged behind two horses; in the second (left) frame, a man sits on the gallows above a hanged man; in the third (bottom) frame, the hanged man is drawn and quartered in front of a fire.

The Fair Maid of Dunsore's Lamentation.

EEBO link.

I'm pausing over this ballad (back to Wood E 25) because it uses one woodcut that's almost identical to one in "A Letter for a Christian Family." But even though these woodcuts are strikingly similar, they're not identical. For instance, the woodcut in "The Fair Maid" has unornamented shirt-cuffs, whereas the woodcut in "A Letter" has ruffled shirt-cuffs.  I can't quite understand why these two images are so similar, yet different.

By the by, the naked bathing lady in "The Fair Made" also appears (sideways) in "The musical Shepeherdess", though she's up-staged by a dancing dog. EEBO link.

The Schismaticke sifted; or his Shifts discovered: by way of Reply to Mr. John Vicars

This tract drew my attention for two qualities. First, the tract itself is a direct reply to John Vicars, printed by Thomas Paine, both of whom I've discovered are generative figures for research into image-texts. Second, the title-page of the tract promises to attack John Vicars as the creator of image-texts. This is the TCP title text from EEBO:

THE Schismaticke Sifted THROUGH A SIVE of the largest size: BUT Is now more purely drest. WHEREIN The Chaffe, the Froth, and the Scumme of Mr. JOHN VICARS his Siftings and Paintings prove him to be a lame Draughts-man, a smearie Washer, his Colours falsly mixt, and his Pencill as course as his Colours.
Collected out of his own words, and under his own hand.By T. C. a Well-willer to Truth and Peace.
Published according to Order.
LONDON, Printed by R. A. for S. W. 1646.

For Sions-Sons sake I cannot hold my peace.

On further investigation, this appears to be a direct response to the title-page of Vicars' original "Schismaticke Sifted" (again, from TCP on EEBO):

THE SCHISMATICK SIFTED. OR, The Picture of INDEPENDENTS, Freshly and Fairly Washt-over again. Wherein, the Sectaries of these Times (I mean, the princi|pall Seducers to that dangerous and subtile Schisme of Independency) are with their own properPensils, and Self-mixed Colours, most lively set forth to be a Generation of notorious Dissemblers and fly Deceivers.

 But, alas, the tract itself spends most of its text responding to Vicars' charges that the Independent churchmen--by their pleas for religious tolerance--threaten the one true (Presbyterian) church.

Still, there is an interesting comment at the end about Vicars' sight (Text from TCP on EEBO, again):

But I finde a light here that much offends your 11 eyes, it is a strange light to you, as well as a new light; I perswade me, it is a hot light also, and you love a middle temper: I would fain know what light enlightened you so farre, [Note: Pa. 34, 35. ] as to be for a Reformation that should be verie glorious, are your eyes now growne weake with looking too stedfastly, inso|much as your desire is now to leave one old light, and take another? or because one small candle is burnt out, will you light up another of the same size?

The Beginning, Progress, and End of Man

"The Beginning, Progreſs, and End of Man" (Wood E 25 [10]) is a folding (metamorphic) piece. A note on the back says, "Bought at Oxor[~] mi Feb. | 1688-9". The colophonic note says this is the product of "J. Deacon."

I thought this was by far the most original piece in the collection. There are ten woodcuts that, in various combinations, make a total of fifteen unique images. But this may be a rank copy of B. Alsop's original metamorphic piece.

A Letter for a Christian Family

This is a single-sheet ballad with three illustrations (I'll call one an amalgam, since it has two woodcuts that have been sawed apart from their original blocks and pressed together). The most interesting thing, though, is that this has been bound alongside the most repetitive, derivative collection of ballads I've ever seen. Even the woodcuts are chock-full of wormholes on every page.

The sign of celestial God, for example, on this ballad also appears in "England's New Bellman" (128). "England's New Bellman" was "printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright, the same partners who printed nearly everything else in this collection--including "A Letter for a Christian Family." It would actually be shorter to list the exceptions to their partnership than to list everything that they published. I'm confident, but not certain, that this was the latest incarnation of the ballad "conger."

It seems initially that the smuttier ballads were more likely to be printed independently: F. Coles published "The Wanton Wife of Bath" without naming the other partners; R Burton (who I don't believe was a partner) published "Five Merry wives of Lambeth" and "A Westminster Wedding" in the 1660s.

I digress. The sign of the penitent prayer also appears in "A Leiceſterſhire Frolick" (28). There, the figure has the upside-down text "Oh ſpare our lives I pray." There's no text above her in "A Letter for a Christian Family."

A list of interesting things from the Bodleian

Anonymous,  The manner of the impeachment of the xii. bishops accused of high treason, for preferring a petition, 1642. Pamph. C 50 (40). Wing # M472. EEBO link.
Anonymous, The declaration of his excellency the earl of Leven, the general officers, 1646. Pamph. C 77 (2). EEBO unavailable.
John Vicars, The xij Aeneids of Virgil, tr. into Engl. deca-syllables, 1632. Douce V 87. STC # 24809 . EEBO link.
John Vicars, A sight of ye trans-actions of these latter yeares emblemized with engrauen plats, 1646. Crynes 908. Wing # V327 . EEBO unavailable.
John Vicars, God in the Mount, Or, Englands Remembrancer, 1642. Wing # V308. EEBO link.
John Vicars, A letter for a Christian family, TK Date. Wood E 25 (149). Wing # V314A . EEBO link.

As you can tell, I've been circling around John Vicars. I think he's an interesting central figure who draws together Prynne, Jenner, and other hot Protestant stationers, authors, and partisans. But this connection also brought me to some of the awesome bound broadsides that are in Wood E 25. Vicars is important for finding both social and formal connections.

A Sight of the Trans-actions of these latter yeares...

First of all, I love the way that this book calls attention to its own reading in the full title: "A Sight of the Tranſ-actions of theſe latter yeares Emblemized with Ingraven Plates, which men may Read without Spectacles." Next to the title, a librarian with modern hand has added in ink, "By John Vicars." (The same hand added "Crynnes | Olim g21.", above). For his part, Vicars identifies himself as the collector on the final page (D4r), since the text itself reports several public speeches, petitions, and prayers, including:

• The Proteſtation [of Pym, Laighton, Smart, Walker, Foxley, Lilborn, and others] (A4v)
• The Earl of Straffords Speech on the Scaffold (B1r)
• The Biſhop of Canterburies firſt prayer on the Scaffold, 10 Janua. 1644. (D1v)
• The Biſhop of Canterburies laſt Prayer on the Scaffold" (D2v) and 
• "The Speech of the Lord Louthen, Chancellour of Scotland, to the King at Newcastle, July 1 6 4 6 (D3r)

 The bookseller is Thomas Jenner, who presumably printed the work. I'll have to check Jones to see if he's identified the sculptor of these engravings, but it may be someone from Jenner's circle of other engravers. From the ODB:

Among the engravers whose work Jenner published were Renold Elstrack, John Goddard, Wenceslaus Hollar, William Marshall, Simon De Passe, and his brother Willem (to whom Jenner may have been related by marriage). Jenner's professional association with Willem De Passe was happily productive, and three of his early publications of De Passe's engravings are among his best:Frederick of Bohemia and his Family (1621), James I and Charles as Prince of Wales (1621), and a striking dynastic portrait, The Family of James I (1622). Other productions of Jenner's earlier career which, in a different way, are also remarkable are the collections of prints depicting allegorical figures such as The Seven Deadly Sins (c.1630), The Five Senses (c.1630), and, later, The Four Elements (c.1640) (engraved, respectively, by Goddard, Barra, and Marshall).

"A Sight of the Trans-actions" was printed in 1646, after all of these series. The latest of these engravers to have worked with Jenner is William Marshall, who also engraved Heraclitus' Dream and many other objects of interest. Marshall engraved Vicars' "Charles prince of Great Britaine, borne, baptiz'd, and buried" which was sold by Jenner.


The engravings themselves appear to be a standard size:

• 128 mm high and 97 mm wide (A1v)
• 127 mm high and 98 mm wide (A4r)
• 127 mm high and 96 mm wide (B1r)
• 128 mm high and 98 mm wide (B2r)
• 127 mm high and 100 mm wide (B3r)
• 126 mm high and 96 mm wide (B4r)
• 127 mm high and 100 mm wide (C1r)
• 128 mm high and 98 mm wide (C2r)
• 125 mm high and 96 mm wide (C3r)
• 126 mm high by 96 mm wide (C4r)
• 129 mm high and 99 mm wide (D1r)
• 130 mm high and 100 mm wide (D2r)

The plates themselves are printed well in this copy, with no signs of mis-impression. Moreover, it seems that the engravings were placed not out of any necessity of printing (because C1r and C2r are on opposite sides of the same quarto sheet). Instead, each illustration appears in the opening most relevant to it. For example, the illustration with depicting "The arch-Prelate of St Andrewes in Scotland | reading the new Service-booke in his pontificalibus | aſsaulted by men & women, with Cricketts ſtooles | Stickes and Stones" followed below by "The riſing of Prentiſes and Sea-men on South-|-wark ſide to aſsault the Arch-biſhop of Canter-|-burys Houſe at Lambeth" appears opposite the page that narrates the same (A3v).

There are some interesting moments of meta-representation in these illustrations. Marshall illustrated a broadside against "Catholick Gamesters", and the illustration on C4r shows a fire of game-books below a large frame depicting the breaking of the Cheapside cross. Also, Marshall seems to have expunged a face from even the copperplate engraving of a devotional painting. The illustration on D1r has three visible painting subjects. One in the fire depicts the pope in profile, carrying a shepherd's hook. The two others headed towards the fire depict a man kneeling at the foot of the crucifixion, and a woman in profile. Notably, the woman in profile has her face visibly erased. At first, I thought this was damage to the page itself. I checked the paper, and it's not punched through or even scratched on the surface. This erasure was made on the ink itself--either before or after the impression of the copperplate.