Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

their labour. When any payment was made, it was miserably inadequate. Only fourteen scholars, some of them of considerable celebrity, received more than ten florins for their works. The honorarium accorded to translators, editors, and annotators of foreign literature, was on the same meagre scale. There were expenses to which the publisher of the sixteenth century was liable; a page from Plantin's Journal of 1565 will illustrate their character and amount.

'On the 11th of March I was at Brussels on the business of obtaining certain copyrights, and to secure the favour of Monsieur the Chancellor and other powerful persons.' Then follows a detailed inventory of presents. To the Chancellor, 4 Auvergne cheeses, worth 15 patards each; 8 baskets of plums and pears, at 3 patards each; and a Bible in 16mo, ruled and gilded.' The Curé of St. Gudule receives 2 cheeses and 6 baskets of fruit, and a Bible of the same description as before, and a like gratification is bestowed on Mons. Hopper. Some other laymen have to be content with creature-comforts only, on a carefully graduated scale. Then follow what appear to be fees for the visitation, approbation, and privilege of various works: the whole outlay amounting to the substantial sum of 50 florins. The mutual relations of capital and labour did not greatly differ from those which prevail amongst ourselves. The master spirit of the establishment under Plantin was his son-inlaw, Jean Moretus, and he presents his father-in-law with an amusing account of the trouble caused him by the workmen. "They are as tiresome and ill-disposed as men can be. It seems they have learned from one another to make Mondays, and they will only work when they like. As to working well, it is only when you are at their elbow.' In 1575, Moretus wished to present Plantin, as a new year's offering, with a Typifice, as he terms a volume containing the title-pages and engravings which had been issued by the firm, and he naturally wanted to get it finished by the end of the year, but he failed, and why? Because these rascals of printers would play, when only a leaf or two was wanting to complete the work. If I ask the reason why they have not been at work, I have directly the most outrageous answers imaginable. One informs me that he has been to hear the first mass of a printer who has been made a Canon. Another, that he has been with the Dean of the Painters' Guild, to restore order amongst the book-binders; a third, that he went to see a calf's entrails buried, and so forth. So that I would as lief have to do with any pack of humbugs as with them.'

Twice a year-in Lent and autumn-Frankfort was the gathering ground of a vast concourse of merchants from every

quarter,

quarter, and for nearly eighty years the firm of Plantin was represented at these fairs by its principals or their most confidential agents. In 1566, Plantin attended the Lenten fair, accompanied by his son-in-law, Jean Moretus. Plantin went by carriage from Antwerp to Cologne, and paid 4 florins 10 sous for his fare, and 3 florins in other expenses. Moretus walked the same distance—it is 150 miles-and spent 5 florins 15 sous on the road. During the fair their joint expenses amounted to 11 German florins, and the rent of their shop to 13 florins more. They returned by water to Cologne, and walked thence to Maastricht, whence they took the voiture to Antwerp. The entire cost of the Frankfort journey was about 57 florins, and this sum was more than doubled by adding to it the carriage of the bales of books, the export and import duties, the loading and landing charges, and pourboires. It should be added that despite his impending ruin in 1576, and the heavy sacrifices required to maintain his credit, he left a fortune equivalent to nearly 50,0001.

A few details of domestic life will serve to bring out Plantin's character into strong and favourable relief. In reply to enquiries from Cayas he writes that he has five daughters, having lost his only son in childhood, whom he has trained to fear God, the King, and his magistrates, and also to assist their mother in her household duties:

[ocr errors]

And because early childhood is too feeble in body for manual housework or business matters, I taught them at that time to write and read so well, that from the age of 4 or 5 years up to 12 years old, each of the four first, according to their age and position, has helped me to read the proofs from the printing-house, in whatever language or writing it was sent to be printed. And I have also taken pains at spare hours, and as leisure allowed, to have them taught to work with the needle upon linen, . . . with careful observation, by degrees, to what each one specially inclined.'

He proceeds to explain that Marguerite, the eldest, had displayed special capacity in writing, and had turned out one of the best pens in the country; but that weakness of sight had prevented her pursuing this accomplishment. She was given in marriage at eighteen years of age to Raphelengien, whose aid as a learned corrector of the press and coadjutor to Arias Montanus, was of singular value. The hand of the second daughter, Martine, was sought by Jean Moretus, 'a young man expert and well instructed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, German and Flemish.' 'Thus I possess two second selfs; the first in the printing-house, for correcting the press; the second in the shop, for my accounts and commerce.'

From

From another paper we learn the particulars of Marguerite's wedding. On the eve of the marriage, June 22, 1565, Plantin entered into a legal contract with his son-in-law to supply a kit garni as well as the bride's trousseau, and to defray the cost of the wedding feast. If any of the bridegroom's friends gave a wedding present, the young couple were to have the benefit of it; but if any of Plantin's friends showed a like generosity, the bride's father was to deal with it as he pleased. Raphelengien promised to continue in his father-in-law's service for three years, or until the edition of the Hebrew Bible was completed. Plantin, on his part, engaged to pay his son-in-law a salary of 100 florins a year, besides his household expenses, which were estimated at 60 florins more. Both parties undertook to give six months' notice before terminating the engagement. At the same time Plantin lent Raphelengien 33 florins, that he might 'make a good figure' on the occasion. Towards this amount 6 yards of cloth were set down at 17 florins, a hat at 1 florin, and more than 9 florins for the bride's rings, leaving 5 florins in ready money. The loan was repaid from the presents of Raphelengien's friends, which amounted to 32 florins 5 sous. Plantin's guests contributed no less than 90 florins 16 sous. Shortly before the event, the bride's father had purchased a piece of Lille gros grain for the bride's dress and his own robe, and a piece of Lille serge for the promised bed. We are not informed how many of Raphelengien's friends were present, but M. Rooses gives the names of twenty-eight citizens who were invited by the host, including the town clerk of Antwerp and the Bomberghes and Schotti, his trade partners in 1568. The menu of the wedding feast was sufficiently substantial. It comprises 3 sucking-pigs, 6 capons, 12 pigeons, 12 quails, 5 legs of mutton and 3 more en brune pâte, 12 sweetbreads, 3 tongues, 6 veal pies and 6 hams. Besides these there were served cherries, guignes, strawberries, oranges, capers, olives, salad and radishes. The confectionery included masspains, sugar-plums, aniseed, and Milanese cheese. Wine was consumed to the value of 12 florins 5 sous for Rhenish, and 4 florins 2 sous for red wine, without reckoning 7 florins for a pot de vin' given to the workmen. The festivities were prolonged for several days, and even on June 30 money was being taken from the till for the wedding expenses.

Raphelengien remained for ten years under Plantin's roof, and so valuable were his services, that his annual stipend was increased on several occasions until, in 1581, it stood at 400 florins. How simply a man with so ample an income was satisfied to lodge is curiously revealed in a petition from Plantin to the

municipal

municipal authorities, for exemption from having soldiers billeted upon him at a house which he held in the Rue du Faucon. 'The place,' he says, ' is used as a warehouse, and never has any empty space in it for three days together, except a small low sleeping closet, about 12 feet wide by 16 feet long. This contains two beds, which fill almost the entire chamber, in which there sleep my son-in-law Raphelengien, with his wife and three of their children, and their chambermaid.' This was in 1575; A few months later Plantin conveyed to Raphelengien for 300 florins one of the small dwellings which, until a few years ago, disfigured so picturesquely the western front of Antwerp Cathedral.

Catharine, the third daughter, was hardly as fortunate as her elder sisters. She went to live with her husband, Jean Gassen, in the family of his uncle at Paris, and shortly afterwards her father was grieved to learn that the young couple did not comport themselves to the satisfaction of their host. Forthwith he addressed each of them in letters of appalling length. It appears that Catharine had carried her audacity to the pitch of refusing to fulfil the duties of a chambermaid, on the plea that there were plenty of servants to do the work without her; and her father has the most vehement distress of heart to hear of behaviour so entirely contrary to the will of God, his own wishes, and the proper order of things. He tells her with unsparing candour, that despite an apparently cheerful and cordial manner, he knows that she is only too disposed to imagine that she ought to be listened to, and that she should have authority to talk, chatter, babble, and even upbraid, as is the detestable custom of too many.

'I would remind you that as long as I could possibly do so, I used to arise betimes and to employ myself at anything, without setting myself above any one, and I never thought myself of any other degree than the very least of my servants or chamber women. Neither you nor your husband are made of different flesh from the most abject people in the world. Nor is she even to think herself the equal of the daughters of the house, who are under their father's roof and heiresses of his estate.'

And so the merciless pen runs on through nine long pages of printed matter. It is not a little remarkable that throughout these letters there is not a single reference to confession or priestly counsel, to Virgin or saints, or any other means of grace which the Roman Church would commend.

ART.

ART. VIII.—1. History of England from the Conclusion of the Great War in 1815. By Spencer Walpole. Vols. III.-V. London, 1880-1886.

2. The Greville Memoirs (Second Part). A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852. By the lateCharles C. F. Greville Esq., Clerk of the Council. 3 vols. London, 1885.

3. The Greville Memoirs (Third Part), 1852-1860. 2 vols. London, 1887.

6

R. WALPOLE'S History of England' is an unsatisfactory book, notwithstanding the diligence, and, we gladly add,. the ability of the author. It contains not only passages, but chapters of considerable merit, yet were we to recommend it to our readers as being what it professes to be, a History of England during a great portion of the present century, we should be parties to the extraordinary delusion under which Mr. Walpole seems to labour, that a dissertation on certain ethical tendencies is history in the proper sense of the word. 'Histories,' said Bacon,' make men wise,' and we are willing to believe that there is much wisdom to be found in the volumes of Mr. Walpole, but we are not therefore convinced that they are history as Bacon understood the term, or as the reader of Mr. Walpole's title-page would understand it now. History in the highest sense, in which alone it is rightly connected with the name of a country, is the story of the nation's fortunes, the narrative of its political acts, delineating the qualities and the temperaments of the men who have contributed to guide the social organization. The career and characters of those who for good or ill have been at the head of public affairs during the period treated of must be the main theme. The writer should tell us how many of the events which occurred were due to individual idiosyncrasies, how many to national characteristics, to accidents of local and material condition; how far mental habits and waves of thought affected the persons who governed and the nation which they ruled; what lessons we may gather for the formation of political character, for the conduct of public affairs in analogous circumstances. Bacon, we imagine, would have found some other name for Mr. Walpole's volumes. than a History of England. An Enquiry into the national growth of Moral Sentiment,' A History of the Influence of Philanthropy in English Politics,' 'An Examination of the Social and Economic Condition of England in the Nineteenth Century-any of these would have been better titles than that which Mr. Walpole has selected, one which is not fair to him

[ocr errors]

self

« AnteriorContinuar »