SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
38:)
named Aspliii,perhaps that Thomas Asplin,* who became apprentice toDay.from the Annunciation of 1566, for eight years, since he was set at liberty, and was received into Day's house, where, howerer, he attempted to assassinate his benefactor, his wife, and some others of his family. On the 8th of January, 1583, be gave up to the disposal of the company and the benefit of the poor, his right to certain books and copies which were his property.
In " a note of the oflBces, and other special! licences for printing, graunted by her Ma"* to div'se p'sons, with coniecture of the valuation," written for lordBurghley by Christopher Barker, the queen's English printer, in December, 1582, is this account off
Mr.Daye. In the pririledge, or private licence graunted to Mr. Daye, are among other things the Psalmesin raeeter, w*' notes to sing them in the churches, as well in foure p'ts, as u playne songe, w** being a parcell of the church service, prop'ly belongeth to me. This booke being oc- cupied of all sortes of men, women, and children, and requiring no great stock for the fumyshing thereof, is therefore gaynefuU. The small cate- chisme alouc, taught to all lyttle children of this realme, is taken oute of the Booke of Com'on Prayer, and belongeth to me also, w* Mr. Jugge solde to Mr. Daye, and is likewise included in this patent procured by the right honorable the earl of Leicester, and therefore for duties sake I hold my self content therewith. This is also a profitable copie, for that it is generall, and not greatlie chargeable."
In a complaint from the printers and stationers in general of the " priviledges lately granted" to several persons enumerated, the date of which is either 1682 or 1583, occurs
"John Daye, the printinge of A B C and Catechismes, w<k the sole selling of them, by the collo, of a com'ission. These books weare the onelie releif of the porest sort uf that companie." We have before seen, however, that this property had been Day's from the time of Edward VI.
After having followed the profession with zeal, ability, and reputation, for forty years, he died at Walden, in Essex, and " was buried in the parish church of Bradley-Parva, in the county of Suffolk, where, against the north wall of the chancel, is a stone table, fixed to his memory, on which is inlaid in brass the effigies of a man and woman, kneeling against a table, before which are two children in swaddling clothes, and behind the man, six sons, and behind the woman, five daughters, all kneeling. On the top of the stone are three escutcheons on brass plates, under which is cut, in capital letters, mihi vita CBRisTvs. Under the two effigies of Day and
- Herbert has noted, from the books of the staUonen'
comtMojr, that one Thoma* Aaplyo was bound apprentice to Mr. Dajr, from the Annondation, isM, for eight yean ; and that one Robert Asplyn, apprentice to Edward Sntton, waa made tree, October ith, IS70.
t Prom the Barghler mannscripta, (Lanadowne collec- tion, Britiah Museum,) xlviil. 81. A cniiooa docnment, which Mr. Ellis some rears ago introdaced to the notice of the society of antiqoaiies.
his wife, are the following verses, cut in the old English letter: from the hflh and sixth of which verses it should seem to be intimated (according to Granger) that Fox undertook the laborious work of AcU and Monument; at his instance —
Here lyes the Daye, that darkness could not blind. When popish fogges had overcaste the sunnc, This Daye the crneU nighte did leave behind, To view, and shew what blodl actea were donne. He set a Fox to wrtght bow martyrs mnne. By death to lyfe- Fox ventured paynea and health. To give them light : Daye spent in print his wealth. But God with gayne returned his wealth agayne. And gave to him as he gave to the poore. Two wyves he liad, pertakers of his payne. Each wyfe twelve babes, and each of them one more : Als (i.e. Alice) was the last encreaser of his store, Who mourning long for being left alone. Set up this tombe, herself tumM to a stone.* Obiit 23 July, ltg4.
John Fox, whose name is so prominently introduced into his epitaph, was evidently one of the principal purveyors for his press; his name occurring frequently as an editor. Of the Ach and Monuments, Day printed four folio editions, in 1662, 1570, 1676, and 1583; and his son Richard another in 1596. Of the first edition Dr. Dibdin has given a very full account, with several specimens of the ably executed cuts.
Anthony a Wood, in his Life of Fox, states that when at Basil he was "a most painful labourer at his pen in the house of Oponuus, a learned printer;" and that after his return to London, where he was very bountifully enter- tained in the duke of Norfolk's " manor place, called Christ Church," "from that house he travelled weekly, every Monday, to the house of John Day, the printer, to consummate his Actt and Monument! of the Church, and other works in English and Latin."t To the liberality of Day we are indebted for the first publication of Fox's Book of Martyri, of which he himself printed many editions. It was published Cum priviUaio reg. majett. 1562, and is alluded to in the 5th and 6th lines of the verses upon his monumentar tablet.
The following contemporary " sqtiib" against Day and Fox, was communicated to Dr. Dibdin by Dr. Blis.s, from a blank leaf at the end of a manuscript of the Priche of Contcience, in the Bodleian library:
The grave coonseU of Oravesend barge
Gevetb Jhon Daye a privilege large.
To put this in prynt for his gaynes.
Because in the Legend of Lya he taketh paynes;
Commandlnge other upon payne of slavery
That none prynt thys bat Jhon Dage
the prynter of Fote hit knmerf.
Dr. Dibdin has copied two of the portiaitsf of Day, which occur in some of his works, and
- Herbert presumes that she was remarried to a person
named Stone.
t One of them is very finely executed ; the oTthography of the inscription proves it to be the work of a foreign artist: Lisn is diaths, akd death i> tiin : xtatis SDX xxxx. ISCs. I. D. The portait of John Day, is perhapa the earliest of our ancient printers, which can be depended npon as genuine. The Hist appeared in the EIrmenU of OeometTie of the putt auncient Philotopher Eoclitle of Uegttra, I47t, foliO) but the original wood cat beaia the date of ISM.
VjOOQ IC
