Below you'll see two title pages of penny pamphlets written by Thomas Dekker (1572-1632)
Thomas Dekker, from the frontispiece of his play Dekker his dreame, woodcut, 1620
Mary Evans Picture Library
a playwright and journalist. These two pamphlets, in the guise of explaining to readers how to avoid being victims of various petty crimes (such as pickpocketing)--or how to catch the perpetrators (the connies [rabbits])--actually give pretty good instructions for commiting those crimes. Dekker wrote on many subjects and reminds us of Daniel Defoe, from the early 18th-century, and even Charles Dickens, from the 19th-century, in his love of street life and his compassion for the lower and middle classes.
First, here's Dekker's The Belman of London (1608). A bell man was a night watchman who would walk through the town ringing out the time and checking for crime.
Now take a look at another penny pamphlet by Dekker. Note how the images on each of these, as well as on the emblems you just saw, are of a lower quality than on the title pages of the translations of the classics. Also, the very subjects of the illustrations are much different.
Click here to turn to a "broadside" (a large sheet of paper usually printed on one side,or something, such as an advertisement or public notice, that is printed on a broadside. Also called broadsheet) funeral elegy for John, Earl of Rochester.