Between 1605 and 1609 it is likely that Eld printed all Thorpe's 'copy'
as matter of course and that he was in constant relations with him.

'W. H.' and Mr. William Hall.

There is little doubt that the 'W. H.' of the Southwell volume was Mr.
William Hall, who, when he procured that manuscript for publication, was
an humble auxiliary in the publishing army. Hall flits rapidly across
the stage of literary history. He served an apprenticeship to the
printer and stationer John Allde from 1577 to 1584, and was admitted to
the freedom of the Stationers' Company in the latter year. For the long
period of twenty-two years after his release from his indentures he was
connected with the trade in a dependent capacity, doubtless as assistant
to a master-stationer. When in 1606 the manuscript of Southwell's poems
was conveyed to his hands and he adopted the recognised role of procurer
of their publication, he had not set up in business for himself. It was
only later in the same year (1606) that he obtained the license of the
Stationers' Company to inaugurate a press in his own name, and two years
passed before he began business. In 1608 he obtained for publication a
theological manuscript which appeared next year with his name on the
title-page for the first time. This volume constituted the earliest
credential of his independence. It entitled him to the prefix 'Mr.' in
all social relations. Between 1609 and 1614 he printed some twenty
volumes, most of them sermons and almost all devotional in tone. The
most important of his secular undertaking was Guillim's far-famed
'Display of Heraldrie,' a folio issued in 1610. In 1612 Hall printed an
account of the conviction and execution of a noted pickpocket, John
Selman, who had been arrested while professionally engaged in the Royal
Chapel at Whitehall. On the title-page Hall gave his own name by his
initials only. The book was described in bold type as 'printed by W. H.'
and as on sale at the shop of Thomas Archer in St. Paul's Churchyard.
Hall was a careful printer with a healthy dread of misprints, but his
business dwindled after 1613, and, soon disposing of it to one John
Beale, he disappeared into private life.

'W. H.' are no uncommon initials, and there is more interest attaching to
the discovery of 'Mr. W. H.'s' position in life and his function in
relation to the scheme of the publication of the 'Sonnets' than in
establishing his full name. But there is every p