Cheaply printed pamphlets, some 16 to 24 pages, sold by
itinerant pedlars or chapmen at a modest price (from one to six
pennies), usually illustrated with woodblock prints, and comprising
popular ballads, imaginative tales and supposedly true accounts of
notorious real events. They appear in the late 1500s and become
abundant in the eighteenth century as the costs of printing fall
and the national market develops.
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64 words
Citation:
Editors, Litencyc. "Chapbook". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 November 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1312, accessed 06 May 2024.]