Woodcut Illustration by Luis Seibert¹

Broadside Illustrations: This page has two sections: a short introduction to broadside woodcuts and an analysis of the woodcuts used in Marlowe’s ballad.

Broadside Ballad Woodcuts:

In the 16th and 17th century, broadside ballads were versatile works of creativity; they were not only used for their intended purpose, printed songs to sing, but were collected and used decoratively as wallpaper. Broadside ballads were often accompanied by an illustration or woodcut that represented the theme of the ballad and helped catch the eye of customers. While the woodcuts used for broadside ballads were not considered fine art in the early modern period, the broadsides themselves nevertheless held artistic appeal, and the woodcuts were a contributing factor for this.

Woodcuts were recycled and very few were made specifically for a ballad. A great deal of time and work was invested in the creation of new woodcuts. The wood used was often expensive and needed to be imported: “Some popular wood choices included nut wood, lime wood, pear wood, and other nut and fruit woods like cherry, beech, maple and apple.”² Unlike engravings, which had subtle details and featured shades of gray, and etchings, which used freer techniques and more regular, even, and wiry lines, Woodcuts generally had bolder lines that were more suitable for larger images and were often, beginning in the sixteenth century, glued together to produce prints of extraordinary size.³ The majority of the woodcuts served no other purpose than to represent popular or common images. It was not until later, in the Jacobean era, that woodcuts included more sophisticated images, and began to be specially created to be associated with the subjects of the ballad texts.⁴ Printers like Thomas Symcock would reuse woodcuts for a number of other printings. Next, when we start to look at the woodcuts used for the Marlowe ballad, we should consider how much effort went into the creation of those, and similar, woodcuts.

Marlowe’s Woodcuts:

Figure 1: Marlowe Woodcut⁵

Figure 2: Marlowe Woodcut⁶

The two woodcuts placed together cue the reader into the main narrative of the ballad: in this case, a dialogue between a man and a woman. The woodcuts used in the Marlowe ballad follow a common theme, representing the kind of scene the ballad creates, a scene of courtly love in a pastoral setting. This is demonstrated by the images of the flowers and grass at the feet of the figures. The first woodcut (Figure 1), representing the voice of the man, is a typical representation of a nobleman or courtier, while the second woodcut (Figure 2), representing the voice of a  woman, is a typical representation of a noblewoman. The woman is represented in the moment of wooing as she holds a flower in her hand. Both figures are outside, creating the atmosphere of sensual courtly love amid spring-time. In terms of dress, the man wears a Caroline suit, while the woman is in a late Elizabethan/Jacobean-style dress.⁷ The clothing also tells the reader that these figures, and the dialogue between them, is meant to represent sophisticated individuals—those who can afford such styles of the court—and not the common man or woman. These styles of fashion are important in that they give us sense of when these woodcuts were made; these woodcuts were not made at the same time and they were, therefore, not made specifically for this broadside.

Analyzing Woodcut Themes:

Figure 3: Roxburghe woodcut

Figure 4: Roxburghe woodcut

Figure 5: Pepys woodcut

Figure 6: Pepys woodcut