Richard Pynson

“ Whereupon my father accused him of having dealings with Betsey Fraddam, and told him he was a [Pg 10] black-hearted knave, and other things concerning himself, which maddened Richard Tresidder so that he jumped over the hedge that divided them and struck my father with his heavy riding-whip.
Now the Penningtons have always been a large-limbed, powerful race, and, while they have been slow to anger, they have—thank God—always had a strong sense of what is just, and have always been regarded as brave men. ”

“ A muffled exclamation, half of admiration, half of awe, broke from the circling crowd as, the ladder planted, Richard was seen descending it torch in hand. No other man followed; none had volunteered, and he had asked for no companion. They watched him, as the countrymen of those who had formerly worked Wheal Danes might have watched Curtius when he leaped into the gulf; and as in his case, when they saw the ladder removed, and the light grow dim, and finally die out before their eyes, it seemed that the pit had closed on Richard—that he was swallowed up alive. ”

“ Richard felt powerless as a child, and could have cried like a child—not from pain, though he was in great pain, but from vexation and rage. It was maddening to find himself thus physically subjugated by one whom he so utterly despised.
"Keep a civil tongue in your head, cock-sparrow," growled the giant, "lest I wring your neck. You're a nice one to talk of lying; you, with your tales of son and heirship to the Squire, and your offers of copper-mines for the asking! Who told me how I had been fooled? Why, Carew himself! ”

“ This mistake has arisen from a doctored copy of Bonaventure’s Speculum vite Christi in the British Museum, which has a leaf with Caxton’s device inserted at the end.
In his patent of naturalisation of 30th July 1513, Pynson is described as a native of Normandy; and we know that he had business relations with Le Talleur of Rouen, who printed some law-books for him. These books, three in number, may be ascribed to about 1490, or to some time after Machlinia had ceased printing, and before Pynson had begun. ”

“ Very few copies of the original ‘Lesclarcissement’ are now in existence. Two are in the British Museum, one containing manuscript notes by Sir Nicholas Harris Nicolas. Perhaps one reason for its scarcity was the determination of the author that other teachers of French should not obtain copies. Consequently he ‘willed Pynson to sell no copies to any other persons than such as he should command to have them, lest his profit by teaching the French tongue might be mynished.’ The copy in the Mazarin Library at Paris is the only one known in France. ”

“ I told him not to say a word to papa yet, because I knew he objected to Lord Ennismore's health, but we shall soon nurse him into good care."
"To be sure, my love!" responded her mother, "Lord Ennismore will find himself a very different person when he is settled into married life, with a wife to watch over him. Tom Pynsent is an excellent creature, but, as you say, he is broad set, and red-faced. Too much health is worse than too little, in my opinion; Sir John will see things in a different light, when he knows of the actual proposal." ”

“ Richard hesitated, for there was a battle going on within his breast. He longed—longed intensely to go down and see Cornwall again. Tiny Rea was there—he might see her. Yes, and make himself more wretched than ever, for he could not speak to her. It would be madness to go—and yet once—to see the old place before he left England—just for a few hours. And why should he not see Tiny, just to tell her of his unaltered faith? He felt that he would give the world to go, and yet pride kept him back, “All right—I’ll walk in, Mrs Fiddison,” said a voice, and Frank Pratt entered. ”

“ Richard, impatiently; "and get ready a torch or two besides. Pick out
four of the strongest men yonder, and bid them come with me, and search
Wheal Danes."
"What! that old pit. Sir? You'll not find a man to do it—no, not if they knowed as master was at the bottom of it. You wait till morning."
"Your master is at the bottom of it. I feel sure he took the lantern with him to search that mine. I will give them a pound apiece to start at once. Pack up this food, and lend them a mattress to bring him home upon. Be quick! be quick!" ”

“ Tom Pynsent looked aghast.
"Every body but yourself has observed the thing," said young Spottiswoode. "Haven't they, Tyndal?"
"Where are your eyes, Pynsent?" asked Mr. Vyvyan. "I detected the lady the moment you addressed her."
"'Love in her eyes for ever plays,'" sang Mr. Wycherly. "'It makes her rosy lips his care.'"
"'And walks the mazes of her hair,'" added Mr. Vyvyan.
Tom Pynsent gazed on each speaker in silent amazement: no pencil could pourtray the workings of his countenance.
"Who would sorrow for the cold-hearted, when a handsome girl worships the ground one treads upon?" cried Mr. ”

“ There were, however, a few stock cuts: a schoolmaster with a gigantic birch for grammars, a learned man seated at a desk for works of more advanced scholarship, and lively pictures of hell for theological treatises. The title-page was formed on a fixed plan. At the top, printed inside a wood-cut ribbon, was placed the title, below this the cut.
Pynson, who was the Royal printer, and a publisher of learned works, disdained such attempts to catch the more vulgar buyers. His title-pages rarely have cuts, and these are only used on such few popular books as he issued. ”

“ Pynsent."
"Why, Sir John, there is but a right and wrong way of doing things—if a man does right, he goes on very well; and if he does wrong, why, he will be damned for it!"
The voices of Julia and Lord Ennismore, in playful tones, echoing through the hall, at this moment reached Tom Pynsent's ears. He became alarmed and nervous.
"I wish it was over, Sir John. I could wish to see Miss Julia now, and hear my fate at once. A man gets very awkward and nervous in this situation, I declare!" and Tom Pynsent's red face became ashy pale.
Lady Wetheral undertook to make his burthen an easy one. ”

“ Sir John Spottiswoode appeared suddenly at Hatton. He was staying at Lidham, and excursing among his friends in Shropshire. Mrs. Pynsent insisted upon Sir John becoming their guest, and enforced her request in her usual quaintly expressive style.
"Here, hollo, Sir Jacky, you can't think of leaving us at the rate of a sneaking call! Make yourself at home, man; and stay with us till Tom's wife—"
An earnest look of entreaty from Anna Maria checked the rapidity of Mrs. Pynsent's speech. She hesitated. ”

“ Faques, Pynson, and others used similar blocks, in which the letters were white and the background black (one of Pynson's printed in red is to be found in the Ortus Vocabulorum of 1509) , but their uncouthness soon led to their disuse. Numbers of service books were issued by Pynson and Wynkyn de Worde, profusely illustrated with small cuts, most of which appear to have been of home manufacture, though unoriginal in design. It is worth noticing one difference in the cuts of the two printers. ”

“ Pennington, as your good husband says, but very tardily, and much like the journey of Catherine and Petruchio; so dirty are the ways, and so many our crosses, when travelling with Rat and Mole driven [209] by a sick coachman, who makes himself a little more sick at every stage by doing more than he is able, and by crying lest we should at length be provoked to leave him on the road. He is in no danger, poor soul! Mr. Piozzi has just sent him our chicken broth, and we wait here a day for Miss Allen to go kiss her father and mother, an errand so few folks want to go upon.... ”

“ Pennington a long letter, but long things and little people ill agree, and I never could find time till to-night....
Of charming Siddons every Paper can inform you. I really never saw her so charming; but she has a mind to exhibit age, avarice, and bitter disappointment instigating the most horrible crimes, for her Benefit, when Lillo's Fatal Curiosity will be acted. Miss Farren is bride-expectant, and everybody appears to applaud Lord Derby's choice. The Greatheeds are going to Germany next Summer on their son's account; Buonaparte is there already—on his own. ”

“ Wycherly spoke seriously and looked in earnest.
"You were in love with her sister, Pynsent, and had no time to observe other women. Every one else could read in the expression of Miss Wetheral's manner and countenance her decided liking for you."
"God bless my soul!" again ejaculated Tom Pynsent, "I never saw her look me in the face in my life!"
"My dear fellow, you are as green as a girl in her sixteenth year. Do you fancy a woman [133] stares at you by way of shewing her true love? Her downcast looks and melancholy appearance betray her. ”

“ You fellows take yourselves seriously."
"Honestly," said Mark. "What d'ye think of it?"
"It's good—in streaks," said Pynsent solemnly. Then his eyes flashed. "Look here, Mark, they won't hang that. But I've told Lady Randolph and Miss Kirtling that you will have a 'machine' in the Salon. Now, have you the pluck to scrape this and paint it out—to-night?"
"Yes," said Mark.
Next day Pynsent led the way into the forest of Fontainebleau, Mark following like a faithful spaniel. They walked for miles. Finally, Pynsent discovered a bank of cool-looking sand in the heart of a pine wood ”

“ He had some idea of getting money from Finnis—if Finnis were still prosperous—of taking her and the boy abroad at once. He would break his ticket in doing this, but that would not matter so long as they remained abroad. William Finnis had been to see him once at Portland and once at Dover, and had brought good news of her health; from the cage across the space where an official stood to the half-shuttered box to which Alfred was led, William Finnis had told him that Caroline was well and happy down in Devonshire, and that Trafalgar was growing to be a brown-faced schoolboy. ”

“ Though looked upon as a weighty man, among his contemporaries, in respect of animal substance, and as favored with a remarkable degree of fundamental development, well adapting him for the judicial bench, we conceive that the modern Judge Pyncheon, if weighed in the same balance with his ancestor, would have required at least an old-fashioned fifty-six to keep the scale in equilibrio. ”

“ But I took comfort in the thought of Pyn. Pyn showed nothing. He was like one of the three holy men who went through Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace—the smell of fire had not passed on him. A heartier, healthier, merrier fellow it would have been difficult to find.
He entered now with the air of authority which belongs to the member of a club.
“Fellows had their breakfast, Spender?”
Spender was all welcome, of the wistful, yearning kind.
“The men at work is gone; but the guys under restraint is still at table.”
“Mr. Christian not here yet?” ”

“ Father is old and childish, Phineas. In the last few months he has grown much more so. He is breaking down. I can see it, for I have a loving daughter’s eyes. I wish he did not care for the office. It is only a little one, I know. But the Willards have been treasurers of the town for many years, and he seems to have set his heart on holding it. It is a small favour for an old man to ask, Phineas, and you know that there is no honour that father thinks as much of as he does an honour from his own people. ”

“ Finnis, breathless and scarlet, brought back in the shape of a bright, bird-like young nurse, who had prepared herself for leaving the home in a space of time to which the twinkling of the eye was, so to speak, eternity, and had beaten William Finnis in the race back to Exmouth Terrace, because she had the facility of skimming the pavement without seeming to touch it. The door closed upon William Finnis, who stood outside for a while, undecided, until the ground-floor lady put her head agitatedly out of the window. ”

“ How many valuable companions am I to lose? These gentlemen were among the very pleasing ones I have known.... Thank God Salusbury and Conway—dear Lads—are young, and likely to last me out. But when they do not write my foolish heart is fluttering for their safety,—naughty children [323] as they are in neglecting to send me a letter. I have heard but once from Brynbella since my £100 went there....
Mrs. Dimond told [Miss Williams] that Bath would have a sad loss of Mrs. Piozzi; but the Queen will put everything but herself out of everybody's head. The weather is wonderfully dull ”

“ It is plain that unfortunate family is to have no successor."
Another letter follows, dated February 22, written in much the same strain, and giving an account of a visit from Conway, who acted as the bearer of Mrs. Piozzi's last.
On the 24th Mrs. Piozzi writes a note to say that the Benefit is fixed for March 11, and to arrange for Mrs. Pennington's visit on the 1st. She concludes: "I hate such short letters, but my goose-quill,—poor old Goosey!—is moulting as it appears. The Pens and Paper are worse than ever I remember. Yours at Bristol are better perhaps, I'm sure it seems so." ”

“ But this luxurious Nation longs to learn what cannot be known, and see what its own very light renders incapable of being clearly discerned. For when they have stared in our faces on such an occasion, how much do they find out of our hearts?
Farewell! and do write to me: I can talk of nothing but this, and will talk no more about that, so Adieu, and love your true friend
H. L. Piozzi.
Easter Tuesday.
My dear Mrs. Pennington has often seen people talked into misery, 'tis the way now to talk me into happiness ”