THE FIRST NEWSPAPERS.

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this description of what a Newspaper is, and on the authority of the earliest printed papers in the public libraries, to Nathaniel Butter belongs the renown of being foremost as a Newspaper projector.

The step he took, though great in its ultimate consequences, was one very simple and natural, and easily understood. He had been a News-writer; an author of News-letters: one of a class of persons then engaged in London as general correspondents, having offices whence they despatched packets of News to persons of consideration in the country who were rich enough to afford such a luxury. Though printing presses had been at work in England for a hundred. and fifty years, and though the Reformation had allowed them greater freedom than was known where the Roman faith still flourished, the invention of Guttenberg had not been employed for the systematic dissemination of intelligence relative to passing events. Stray pamphlets told now and then how a great flood had devastated the western counties, or how a witch had been burned, or how Gustavus had fought a great battle; but the punctual record of the history of the passing time, week by week, was a thing unattempted till the News-writer, Nathaniel Butter, became a News-printer.

Like many projectors, both before and since, it would seem that Butter gained more notoriety than profit by his invention. The wits laughed at the News-writer, and the public barely supported his paper. In proof of which we have Ben Jonson's Comedy, "The Staple of News,"

* Caxton left Cologne in 1471 to set up his press in Westminster Abbey, and his first book, the Game of Chess, was completed in 1474.

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and a file in the British Museum showing how indifferently the first Newspaper throve. Yet, however much the journalist may have winced under the jests of the poet laureate, it is fortunate the jokes were made, since they live in the pages of rare Ben," and afford us a picture not only of the News-writer's office, but of the temper in which his productions were popularly regarded. The poet's sketch is evidently faithful in its main features, and valuable as our chief record of a class and calling long since superseded by the progress of education and of the press.

It was after an absence of fourteen years from the stage that Ben Jonson again resumed his pen to write for the people. He had, during that long period, been chiefly occupied in the preparation of Masques to amuse the court; and, when he again sought a subject for the humbler audience of the Globe Theatre, he chose one which gave him an opportunity of exciting the mirth of the play-goers at the expense of a noticeable novelty of the day;-something tolerably new and sufficiently strange, and therefore suited to his purpose. The quick eye of the dramatist saw at a glance some of the absurdities attending the mode then in full play for the publication of News. Hence we have the News office seized as a peg to hang a plot upon, and taken, moreover, as a likely title for a new comedy. Jonson's Staple of News* was first acted

*THE STAPLE OF NEWS was first acted by "His Majesty's Servants" in 1625, and entered soon after in the Stationers' Books, though no earlier copy of it is known than that of the old folio, which bears date in 1631.-Gifford's Edition of Ben Jonson.

BEN JONSON'S COMEDY.

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in 1625, and diverted the audience at the expense of the then active business of the News-writer.

Upon opening the play, we find, in the Induction, Gossip Tattle repeating what was no doubt a common remark of the days when News travelled slowly :

Gossip Tattle. Look your news be new and fresh, Master Prologue, and untainted. I shall find them else, if they be stale or fly-blown, quickly.

But a little further on, in his Prologue for the King and Court, Ben Jonson explains:

Although our title, sir, be News,

We get adventures here to tell you none,

But show you common follies, and so known,
That though they are not truths, the innocent muse
Hath made so like, as phant'sy could them state,
Or Poetry, without scandal, imitate.

The News office was, if we are to believe the dramatist, one of the "common follies" of the day, sketched not truly but

so like, as phant'sy could them state.

The portrait of the earliest journalist is certainly much more amusing than complimentary, and the poet has not hesitated to write down to his audience; and that there might be no misapprehension as to his intention of giving them a caricature of Nathaniel Butter, he does not hesitate, as will be seen, to introduce the name of the News-writer into the dialogue. It may be premised that the poet lays the scene of his play in London, and, amongst the persons of his drama, we find a spendthrift heir, young Pennyboy, who has an uncle an usurer, and a father who is described as "the canter." The author of the first Newspaper figures as Cymbal,"master of the Staple (of news), and prime

jeerer," whilst his emissaries, or reporters, are Fitton, Court emissary-the first court circular, and great original of all subsequent collectors of fashionable news; and Picklock, man o' law and emissary, Westminster, a kind of legal and general reporter. We have also Madrigal, a poetaster; Almanac, a doctor of physic; and Lickfinger, a cook and "parcel poet." In the opening scenes, young Pennyboy exults in his newly acquired liberty and wealth, and delights his tailor, his barber, and all others who approach him by a most hilarious liberality. Thomas the barber enters to dress his beard, whilst Fashioner the tailor stands by, and the News-office is introduced:

Pennyboy. Set thy things upon the board, And spread thy cloths, lay all forth, in procinatu, And tell's what News?

Thomas. O, Sir, a Staple of News! Or the New Staple, which you please. Pennyboy. What's that?

Fashioner. An Office, sir, a brave young Office set up:

I had forgot to tell your worship.

Pennyboy. For what?

Thomas. To enter all the News, sir, of the time.
Fashioner. And vent it as occasion serves: a place of huge

commerce it will be!

Pennyboy. Pray thee, peace;

I cannot abide a talking tailor: let Tom (He is a barber) by his peace relate it. What is't an Office, Tom?

Thomas. Newly erected,

Here in the house, almost on the same floor,
Where all the news of all sorts shall be brought,
And there be examined, and then register'd,
And so be issued under the seal of the office,
As Staple News; no other news be current.

Pennyboy. 'Fore me, thou speak'st of a brave business, Tom. The tailor puts in a word here, anxious to help the description by saying something about Butter:Fashioner. Nay, if you knew the brave that hatch'd it.

But the heir stops him with a jest at the expense of tailors in general, and bids the barber proceed :Thomas. He tells you true, sir; master Cymbal

Is master of the office; he projected it,

He lies here, in the house; and the great rooms
He has taken for the office, and set up

His desks and classes, tables and his shelves.

But Fashioner, the tailor, will have his word, and glories in the fact that he makes clothes for a wit and an inventor, who has reporters in his pay:

Fashioner. He is my customer, and a wit, sir, too;

But he has brave wits under him.

Thomas. Yes, four emissaries.

Pennyboy. Emissaries? Stay, there's a fine new word, Tom, Pray God it signify anything! What are emissaries? Thomas. Men employed outward, that are sent abroad To fetch in the commodity.

Fashioner. From all regions,

Where the best news are made.

The tailor will not be restrained when his customer

is being described :

Thomas. Or vented forth.

Fashioner. By way of exchange, or trade.

Pennyboy. Nay, thou wilt speak—

Fashioner. My share, sir, there's enough for both.

Pennyboy. Go on then,

Speak all thou canst: methinks the ordinaries

Should help them much.

Fashioner. Sir, they have ordinaries,

And extraordinaries, as many changes,

And variations, as there are points in the compass.