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Show EARLY WRITER Shakespeare's reference to a paper mill occurs in King He VL in a speech of Jack Cade to Lord Say: "Thou hast most tr torously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammarschool; and whereas, before, our fore-fathers had no other book but the score and the tally, tho hast caused printing to be used and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast buil Paper-mill This play was written in 1623, three years before Spilman' death, and it may be that Shakespeare had this mill and its monopoly in mind when he wrote the lincs. Jack Cade's rebellion was i 1450, and there can be no doubt that the Lord Say had nothin Whatever to do with paper mills. His son, however, acquired b mMarriage a property at North Newton, Oxfordshire, and it i known that North Newton Mill was at one time a paper mill this has led some writers to take Shakespeare's words literally an 10 advance them as evidence establishing this North Newton Mil 45 the first paper mill in England The poem by Thomas Churchyard referred to regarding th Mill of John Spilman, first appeared in 1588, under the title of: Discription and playne discourse of paper, and the whole benefites that Paper brings, with rehersall, and setting foorth in vers @ Paper myll buile nere Darthford, by a High Germaine, calle Master Spilman. leweller to the Queenes Maiestie. The complet Poem consists of 353 lines printed in a quarto volume of fifice Pages, with bordered title-page. While this description of paper i 10 value as a technical history, it s, nevertheless, of great inter€ as the first description of papermaking to appear in English ‘e work was prefaced by a sort of dedicatory epistle addressed "To my honorable friend Sir Walter Raleigh," under the title "A Sparke of Frendship and Warme Goodwill, etc." The composition is much too long to reprint in its entirety, a few salient verse that deal particularly with the subject of paper will suffi Digital Imag © 2004 University of Utah. . All rights reserved |