Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

308 MiANCIS BACON
long before Spielmau's time, i Shakespeare, in 2 Henry VI. (the
plot of which is laid at least a century previously), refers to a
paper-mill. In fact, he introduces it as an additional weight to
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the charge which Jack Cade brings against Lord Saye. Thou
hast/ says he, most traitorously corrupted the youth of the
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realm, in erecting a grammar school, and whereas, before, our
fathers had no other books but the score and tally, thou hast
caused printing to be used, and, contrary to the King, his crown
and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill. An earlier trace of
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the manufacture in this country occurs in a book 2 printed by
Caxton, about the year 1490, in which it is said of John Tate
" 'Which late hathe in England doo make thya paper thynno
That now in our Englyssh thys booke is printed inne.'
" His mill was situate at or near Stevenage, in Hertfordshire;
and that it was considered worthy of notice is evident from an
entry made in Henry the Seventh's Household Book, on the 25th
of May, 1498: 'For a reward given at the paper mylne 16s. 3d.'
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And again in 1499: Geven in rewarde to Tate of the rnvlne,
6s. 3d.' 3
" Still, it appears far less probable that Shakespeare alluded to
Tate's mill (although established at a period corresponding in
many respects with that of occurrences referred to in connection)
than to that of Sir John Spielman.
" Standing, as it did, in the immediate neighborhood of the
scene of Jack Cade's rebellion, and being so important as to call
forth at the time the marked patronage of Queen Elizabeth, the
extent of the operations carried on there was calculated to
arouse, and no doubt did arouse, considerable national interest;
and one can hardly help thinking, from the prominence
which Shakespeare assigns to the existence of a paper-mill
(coupled, as such allusion is, with an acknowledged liberty, inherent
in him, of transposing events to add force to his style,
and the very considerable doubt as to the exact year in which
reference made ivas to none other
the play was written), that the
iThe writer of an article on paper in the Encyclopaedia Britannica argues,
with reason, that the cheap rate at which paper was sold, even in the inland
towns of England, in the fifteenth century, affords ground for assuming that
there was at this time a native industry in paper, and that it was not all imported.
2 De Proprletatibus Serum, Wynken de Wordes, edition 1493.
3 "The water-mark used by Tate was an eight-pointed star within a double
circle. A print of it is given in Herbert's Typis Antiquit., i. 200. Tate died
1514."—J. Hunsell.