From The Quarterly Review. make the legitimate deductions and animadversions. The result is such a por

AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS.*

THE publication of the literary corre-trait of Archibald Constable, the man and spondence of Archibald Constable, the the publisher, as does justice at once to the great Edinburgh bookseller" Hanni-integrity of the father and to the fidelity bal Constable," as Leyden called him of the son, and as satisfies the expectawith pride; "the grand Napoleon of the tions both of the student of literary hisrealms of print," as Scott dubbed him in tory and of the student of human nature. jest; "the prince of booksellers," as Indirectly, literature owes this man a James Mill saluted him in all sincerity – very great debt of gratitude. Sir James reopens an interesting chapter in the Mackintosh, writing to him in sympaliterary history of the last generation. [thetic terms after the great crash of 1826, Constable's career was closely connected says, "You have done more to promote with the starting of a new era in our literature, regarded both as a profession and as a trade. Of the chief men who took part in this movement, either as authors or as publishers, these volumes afford many interesting notices of some only tantalizing glimpses, of others full and satisfying details. The work owes its value in this respect, not merely to Constable's position as a leading publisher, with a wide connection among the foremost literary men and women of his time, but also to Constable's character as a man, which was such as to command confidence and provoke friendship, far beyond the ordinary range of business relations.

Before going further, we are bound to acknowledge the fairness, delicacy, and tact, as well as to commend the literary skill, with which, in these volumes, Constable's son has discharged a difficult and, in some respects, a painful task. He has nothing extenuated, nor aught set down in malice, though the provocation to transgress in both directions, when we remember Lockhart's gross misrepresentations and rude ridicule, to say nothing of Campbell's sneers, was by no means small. In connection with the history of the Scott-Ballantyne failure in particular, the biographer might fairly have claimed for himself considerable license of vituperation. But he has, as wisely as courageously, resisted this temptation, and has confined himself almost exclusively to stating facts and quoting documents, leaving it to his readers to

• Archibald Constable and his Literary Correspondents: A Memorial. By his Son, THOMAS CONSTABLE. Three vols. Edinburgh. 1873.

the interest of literature than any man who has been engaged in the commerce of books." (vol. ii. p. 378). He first set the fashion of enlightened liberality towards authors, a fashion which his rivals were forced to follow. He stimulated the public taste for pure and sound literature; and he was the first to show how works of the highest class might be brought within the reach of the masses, without fear or risk of failure. Then, in order to realize the extent of his direct services to literature, and to freedom of thought, we have only to remember that he was the first publisher of the Edinburgh Review, that he infused new life into the Encyclopædia Britannica, that through him Scott's poems, most of his novels, and the best of his miscellaneous works, were given to the world, and that his Miscellany was, as his biographer says, "undoubtedly the pioneer and suggester of all the various libraries' which sprang up in its wake." It is interesting to find in the memoir abundant proof that the great bookseller was also a good and estimable man- good in all the relations of life- a loving husband, an affectionate and judicious parent, a fast and trusted friend.

In one respect the plan of Constable's memoir is open to objection. It carries us repeatedly over the same period of time, and forces us to traverse, over and over again, though in different company, the same ground. The third volume, which is devoted to his connection with Sir Walter Scott, is to a great extent self-contained and self-explanatory. But, in the first and second volumes, each chapter deals with his connection with

one correspondent, or at most with three the present century to which we have or four. Thus, in company with his part-referred. It suggests a comparative inner A. G. Hunter, we traverse the years quiry, of great interest and value, into the from 1803 to 1811. In the next chapter relations which have subsisted, at differwe return to 1802, and go on with Tom ent periods in the history of literature, Campbell to 1810. John Leyden brings between authors and publishers, or rather us back again to 1800, and we advance in between authors on the one hand, and his pleasant company to 1808. The ac-publishers and the public on the other. count of Alexander Murray, the Oriental- Sir Walter Scott says in his "Life of ist, a monograph, let it be said in pass- Dryden," "That literature is ill-recoming, of rare literary and personal interest, pensed is usually rather the fault of the a portrait of a sterling, hard-headed, in- public than of the booksellers, whose dependent, and withal modest Scot- trade can only exist by buying that carries us back to 1794, and forward to which can be sold to advantage. The 1812. Nor is this all; the same topics trader who purchased the Paradise turn up again and again in different con- Lost' for £10 had probably no very good nections. To take but one example, bargain."* Curiously enough, this quoConstable's quarrel with Longman is tation enables us to bring together exmentioned first in the general account of tremes of literary remuneration which the Edinburgh Review (vol. i. p. 55). It are "wide as the poles asunder;" for in comes up again in the chapter on the same year in which Scott wrote these A. G. Hunter (vol. i. p. 79); once more, words, he himself received from Constain treating of his dealings with John ble £1,000 for the coypright of "MarMurray (vol. i. p. 338); and yet again in mion," a price which, we believe, did not describing his competition with Murray, turn out to the disadvantage of the bookand with Longman, for the patronage of seller. We may therefore safely conSir Walter Scott (vol. iii. p. 32): and so clude, that when Scott alluded as above with not a few other important items. to "Paradise Lost," he did not refer to The method of the work has no doubt the intrinsic merit of Milton's immortal some advantages. In particular, it gives epic, but only to the condition of the popcompleteness and individuality to the ular taste, and commercial demand, under descriptions of the separate correspond- which it was produced. Scott's words ents; but this completeness of the parts make it plain that three factors have to is gained at a sacrifice of the unity and be taken into account in apprising liteharmony of the whole. It makes the rary property the labour of the author work analytic instead of synthetic, which in producing his work, the desire of the such a work ought expressly to be. It public to possess it, and the risk of the presents us with a series of cabinet por-publisher as a go-between in bringing traits, instead of with a historical picture. the author and the public into contact. It furnishes the materials for such a picture in abundance; but it leaves the grouping and arranging — in a word the synthesis to be done by the reader, and that at a considerable expenditure of trouble, and with no little risk of error and misconstruction. But when every deduction has been made, on this or on any score, the work must be admitted to be a sterling one; and, as mémoires pour servir, it cannot fail to be of the highest value to the student of modern literature and of modern society.

The work, however, has much wider bearings than those on the literature of

In the earliest stages of literature there were no publishers in the modern sense, and there was scarcely any public. Before the introduction of printing the manner of publishing a book was to have it read on three days successiv ly before one of the universities or some other recognized authority. If it met with approbation, copies of it were then permitted to be made by monks, scribes, illuminators, and readers,- men who were specially trained in the art, and who de

"The Works of John Dryden, with Notes, &c., and a Life of the Author." By Walter Scott, Esq. Vol. i., p. 392. Edinburgh: 1808.

rived from it their maintenance. It does, satisfy their hunger-starved families, and not appear that any portion of their gains get a meal's meat." (A.D. 1621). was transferred to the author. He did not look for remuneration in money for his literary labour. He found it, partly in fame, but chiefly in his appointment to some post, more or less lucrative, in Church or State. Frequently authors became simply the pensioners of the great and noble, by whom no official services were expected. Chaucer appears to have been rewarded in both ways; at one time he was a pensioner-yeoman of Edward III., at another he was employed to hire ships for the king's service. At various times in his career he held offices in the customs. A modern poet,* who specially claims to call Chaucer "master," pictures for us The clear Thames bordered by its gardens

green;

While, nigh the thronged wharf, Geoffrey
Chaucer's pen

Moves over bills of lading.

In the very year in which he is believed to have written the "Canterbury Tales" he was appointed clerk of the king's works at Windsor. Yet towards the close of his life he seems to have been wholly dependent on his royal pensions and grants of wine. Thus there sprang, almost necessarily we may say, out of the primary condition of authors, that vile system of patronage which kept men of letters in a position of bondage for upwards of three centuries after our regular literature began.

The introduction of printing made but little difference to authors. It ere long did away with the university censorship; but books were so dear that they were within reach of the means only of the very wealthy, on whose bounty, therefore, authors were still dependent; and very wretched was their lot.

66

"Rheto

ric," says Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melancholie," only serves them to curse their bad fortunes; and many of them, for want of means, are driven to hard shifts. From grasshoppers they turn humble bees and wasps — plain parasites and make the muses mules, to

• William Morris, in "The Earthly Paradise."

Spenser also has put on record his bitter feelings on the same subject with special reference to the misery of hangers-on at court. It is said that Queen Elizabeth designed an annuity for Spenser, but that it was withheld by Burleigh. He received, however, from the queen a grant of Kilcolman Castle when he was secretary to Lord Grey in Ireland; but evidently this complaint is wrung from him by his own bitter experience Full little knowest thou, that hast not tried, What hell it is, in suing long to bide: To lose good days that might be better spent ; To waste long nights in pensive discontent; To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow, To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow; To have thy princess' grace, yet want her Peers';

To have thy asking, yet wait many yeares;
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, to give, to want, to be undone.*

Authorship could scarcely be subjected to a greater humiliation than that of John Stowe, the historian, in whose favour James I. granted letters patent under the great seal, permitting him "to ask, gather, and take the alms of all our loving subjects." Yet Stowe's case differed from that of hundreds of his contemporaries and successors only in that he was more honest than they. For, while they were beggars in disguise, he was an avowed and properly licensed mendicant. His letters patent were read by the clergy from the pulpit in each parish which he visited. Other authors prefixed their begging letters to their works, in the shape of fulsome and lying dedications.

The dedication system naturally accompanied that of patronage. It very soon underwent those wonderful developments of which it was evident from the first that it was capable. In the time of Queen Elizabeth the practice had come into fashion of dedicating a work, not to one patron, but to a number.

*From "Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubbard's Tale."

the patron was often compared with, or even placed above, the Deity. Then the common price of a dedication varied from £20 to £40; sometimes it was even more. After the Revolution the price

Spenser, in spite of his horror of fawning, has prefixed to the "Faërie Queene" seventeen dedicatory sonnets, the last of which opened a wide door to volunteer patronesses, being inscribed "To all the gratious and beautifull ladies in the fell to sums varying from five to ten court." Over and above these outer ded-guineas; in the reign of George I. it rose ications, be it remembered, the invocation again to twenty, but from that time the with which the poem opens is addressed to practice gradually declined, as the bookQueen Elizabeth herself, along with the sellers became more and more recognized sacred Muse, Venus, Cupid, and Mars. as the patrons of letters. The queen is further typified in the Faerie Queen herself; and to her the whole work is dedicated, presented, and consecrated, "to live with the eternitie of her fame."

The fall of patronage, and of its concomitant, dedication, was hastened by the general adoption in the latter part of the seventeenth century of the method of publication by subscription. Before that, Fuller has introduced in his "Church the booksellers were in the background. History" twelve special title-pages be- They were mere dealers in books. No sides the general one, each with a partic-opportunity was afforded them for enterular dedication attached to it; and he prise. As soon, however, as subscriphas added upwards of fifty inscriptions tion was introduced, the booksellers beto as many different benefactors. Joshua gan to show themselves in the front. Sylvester, the translator of Du Bartas, Subscribers represented to some extent carried the vice of dedication to a still the public - a limited and adventitious more ludicrous excess. In the collected public, doubtless - but still a much edition of his works, there are seventy wider public than was possible under the separate dedications, in prose and verse, patronage régime. Now with the public addressed to eighty-five separate indi- thus introduced we have present the viduals. Sometimes one short poem is most important of the three factors which dedicated to half-a-dozen patrons. If go to make a free and prosperous nathe poet received the usual dedication tional literature. There was then an infee from each, the speculation must have ducement for authors to do their best, been as profitable as it was ingenious.t and for publishers to aid them in advanThe second book of the "Divine Works "cing their interests. Authorship then becontains fifteen separate dedications. came possible as a liberal profession, and One instance of his flattery is unique in publishing became possible as an organits barefaced comprehensiveness. An "elegiac epistle consolatorie" on the death of Sir William Sydney, is addressed to Lord and Lady Lisle (Sydney's parents), to Sir Robert Sydney their son, to Lady Worth their daughter, "and to all the noble Sydneys and semi-Sydneys." Surely the power of fawning could no further go! It is only to be hoped that it paid.

Nothing, certainly, could be more degrading to authors than that their success should depend, not on their merit, but on their powers of sycophancy; for it is unquestionable that the amount which a patron bestowed varied with the amount of flattery publicly awarded to him. The terms of adulation became most extravagant in the period after the Restoration, when, according to Disraeli,

Folio, pp. 657, printed by R. Young in 1633.

† Even Sylvester's ingenuity was surpassed by that of an Italian physician, of whom Disraeli tells us. Having written" Commentaries on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates," he dedicated each book of his commentaries to one of his friends, and the index to another.

ized trade. It was a timid method of business, certainly, but it was a vast improvement on the method which it came to supersede. It was long before it accomplished much good, but it did accomplish lasting good in the end. In short, it was the transition stage from the system of patronage to the system of free and unfettered publication.

In truth, however, subscription was, in the first instance, only a more extended kind of patronage; and for a long time the two methods continued to exist side by side. Of this a remarkable example is afforded in the case of Dryden, who seems, however, to have had a wonderful aptitude for combining in his own experience all the methods of remunerating authorship in vogue in remote as well as in later times-official appointments, royal pensions, dedication fees, subscriptions, and copy money. He was poet laureate and historiographer royal;* he

Both offices still exist; but it is surely time that such questionable and often invidious distinctions should be abolished, or at least that they should be deprived