Tudor Black Press
The Lamentable and TrveTradgedie of
M. Arden of Feversham in Kent
Illustrations by Hugh Ribbans
Hugh has previously worked with me, creating the linocuts for Dr Faustus. He will be designing and cutting the illustrations in a style befitting the period in which this story is set.
The main body of the text will be hand-set in 14pt Caslon Old Face, cast at Patrick Goossens Letter-Kunde Press in Antwerp.
The special copies numbered in Roman numerals I to XII will be printed on a dampened 140gsm handmade paper made by the Viceversa mill in Fabriano, Italy. The binding will be quarter bound in brown tooled leather with laced on oak boards. The end papers will have special Fleur de Lis marbled paper made by Papiers Prina in Brussels. These will be housed in a drop back box. The cost of a pre order copy will be £470.00, and after publication £550.00.
ALL THE SPECIAL COPIES HAVE NOW BEEN SOLD
The ordinary copies numbered 1 to 45 will be printed on 145gsm Zerkall paper. The binding will be a quarter bound leather with Fleur de Lis marbled paper on the boards, with gold lettering to the spine. The cost of a pre order copy will be £200.00, and after publication £240.00.
The book size is 275mm x 200mm, with 70 pages of text, plus the illustrations.
All the printing is undertaken on the 1833 Albion handpress, and the bindings are crafted by hand in a traditional style.
All the books are created at an ancient farm in deepest rural France.
If you would like a copy of the the prospectus, please send me an email with your details.
Hugh Macfarlane
Lion de Marnes
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Ales (Alice) Wife of Thomas Arden.
Arden of Feversham
Thomas Arden (1508-1550) was a gentleman & merchant living in the town of Faversham* in Kent. In 1547 he became Mayor of Faversham. Arden was a social climber and married Ales (Alice) Mirfyn, the daughter of Sir Edward North. With his money and power he dispossessed the owners of the Abbey lands, one being the farmer Greene who wanted revenge. Alice in the meantime formed an attachment with one Thomas Mosbie and together they plotted the murder of Arden, to which they employed a number of methods to rid themselves of Arden, including hiring the two ruffians Black Will and Shakbag. The murder took place in Arden’s house which still today stands in Abbey Street and is known as ‘Arden’s House’
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The Flour de Luce Inn (Fleur de Lis) where Thomas Mosbie was arrested, was located at 15 Market Place. Part of the original Inn still exists and is not to be confused with the Fleur de Lis in Preston Street. There are no records of the name of the Landlord of the Flour de Luce’s when Arden was murdered in 1550, but we can assume the scribe had this information when he wrote the play.
In the end, most of the characters had a hand in the murder of Arden and it seems only one got away with murder, Shakbag, who disappeared. As for the rest, Alice was burnt to death at Canterbury; Mosbie was hanged at Smithfield; Michael and Susan were hanged in chains at Faversham and Black Will was burnt on a scaffold at Flushing.
The first edition of this play appeared in 1592, and the author is unknown, maybe it could have been Shakbag?
This edition uses the original text from the 1592 edition and uses the the earliest known woodcut from the 1633 edition which will be recut in a similar style by Hugh Ribbans and will be a tipped-in fold out illustration.
Woodcut from the 1633 edition
Black Will at the Nags Head
Shakbag