Street Literature

Chapter 5 explores the way in which cheap print was sold on the streets in early modern Scotland, and particularly in Edinburgh. It examines the world of outdoor commerce in general, before detailing the ways in which broadsides, pamphlets, and newspapers were vended in public places. It focuses on the ‘paper criers’ and ‘running stationers’ who plied their trade in the markets and thoroughfares. The coffeehouses of Edinburgh, Glasgow, and other burghs are identified and described, and the ways in which print circulated in them are recovered. The chapter illustrates the public and communal nature of much cheap print and suggests that this characteristic helps to explain why so little of it has survived.

The Edinburgh Book Trade and Vernacular Literature, 1500–1660

Chapter 2 surveys the development of the book trade in Edinburgh during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries with a particular emphasis on the production and circulation of more popular works in Scots and English. It traces the development of printing in Edinburgh, looks at the expansion of booksellers in the city, and examines the role of travelling chapmen in disseminating literature across Scotland and into England. The remarkable inventories of Thomas Bassandyne and Robert Gourlaw are examined in some detail in order to shed light on the extensive range of vernacular literature from the London market that was being sold in the Scottish capital in the later sixteenth century.

Conclusion

The conclusion draws together the themes of this study. It emphasises just how much ephemeral print was produced in early modern Scotland. At the same time, it reiterates how little of such material has survived and suggests that this accounts for the fact that its contemporary significance has been insufficiently appreciated. The book demonstrates that various forms of cheap print were much more widely produced and circulated in early modern Scotland than was once thought. It illustrates something of the extent, range, and distribution of these slightest kinds of text and suggests that this evidence invites a re-evaluation of Scottish popular literature and popular culture in the period.

The Edinburgh Book Trade and Popular Wares, 1660–1785

Chapter 3 traces the continued development of the book trade in Edinburgh during the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, focusing in particular on the lower end of the market. It examines the printers who specialised in cheap wares, the booksellers who purveyed them in the city, and the chapmen who carried them out into the towns and villages of Lowland Scotland. It examines the roles of book auctions and circulating libraries, of cheap reprints and popular imports, in extending the reach of popular works down through society in Edinburgh and beyond.

Last Words and Dying Speeches

Chapter 7 focuses in detail on the gallows speeches printed in Scotland between the late sixteenth and the late eighteenth centuries. It provides the first detailed examination of this form of cheap print in a Scottish context. The dying words spoken by convicted felons on the scaffold before their execution were as popular as the spectacle of capital punishment itself. Printed sheets containing these farewell orations sold on the streets and were a staple form of popular literature. Their contents reveal much about the nature of public execution in Scotland, the attitudes of the authorities towards sin and crime, and the behaviour of sufferers on the point of death.

Little Pamphlets and Story Books

Chapter 10 charts the development of the little pamphlets and booklets printed in early modern Scotland. Most were produced from single sheets of paper and sometimes from half-sheets. They contained works of edification, instruction, and entertainment. Some of these ‘story books’ were reprinted from the English market and others were of Scottish provenance; some were in verse and others in prose. Their contents included sermons, godly tales, and collections of songs or ‘garlands’, together with compilations of humorous anecdotes and jests. During the eighteenth century these small tracts became one of the most popular forms of reading matter and they remained so into the nineteenth century, when they first came to be known in Scotland as ‘chapbooks’.

Almanacs and Prognostications

Chapter 9 surveys the development of almanacs and prognostications in Scotland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It demonstrates the huge numbers in which they were printed, the low price at which they sold, and the ways in which they were distributed nationwide by chapmen and hawkers. It examines their most prominent printers, explores the identity of their authors, and discusses the nature of their content. It highlights the status of Aberdeen as an early and renowned centre of almanac production and illustrates the ways in which these very cheap and ubiquitous publications changed over time.

Ballads and Songs

Chapter 8 deals with the broadside ballads and printed songs issued in Scotland between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. It traces both the import of English texts and the production of domestic presses. The manner in which lyrics and tunes from south of the border influenced the development of single-sheet songs in Scotland is assessed. At the same time an independent repertoire of Scottish ballads in print is recovered and analysed. The discussion illustrates the ways in which political events and social change in early modern Scotland are reflected in the texts of these cheap and popular publications.

Handbills and Placards

Chapter 6 examines the handbills that were passed around on the streets and the notices that were posted up in Scottish communities during the early modern period. In particular, it looks at government proclamations and civic ordinances, topical publications and newssheets, elegiac poetry and satirical squibs, commercial advertisements and playbills, together with other ephemeral items printed on a single sheet. It indicates the ways in which public places in Scotland would have been filled with a variety of flyers and posters that made up the textual environment of everyday life. The fragile nature of such material has ensured its limited survival and made its contemporary significance easy to overlook, but it made a fundamental contribution to the cultural ambience of the urban Lowlands in these centuries.

Creating a Reading Public

Chapter 1 examines the creation of a reading public in early modern Scotland. It charts the expansion of basic education both in the formal setting of schools and the informal environment of the home. It highlights the way in which the ability to read a simple printed text in English spread down through Lowland Scottish society so as to become commonplace. The price of cheaply printed works in the form of single sheets, pamphlets, and unbound tracts is documented and set alongside the data of wages and prices so as to assess the changing cost of such material in real terms and emphasise its relative affordability. Finally, the broader context of press regulation and output in Scotland is surveyed across the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.