The Elizabethan Stage, Vol. 3

by E. K. Chambers

For a fragment of another translation of Hercules Oetaeus, cf. s.v. Elizabeth. Archer’s play-list of 1656 contains the curious entry ‘Baggs Seneca’, described as a tragedy. Of this Greg, Masques, li, can make nothing.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616).

No adequate treatment of Shakespeare’s life and plays is possible within the limits of this chapter. I have therefore contented myself with giving the main bibliographical data, in illustration of the chapters on the companies (Strange’s, Pembroke’s, Chamberlain’s, and King’s) and the theatres (Rose, Newington Butts, Theatre, Curtain, Globe, Blackfriars) with which he was or may have been concerned. I follow the conjectural chronological order adopted in my article on Shakespeare in the 11th ed. of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Collections

[1619]. It is probable that the 1619 editions of Merry Wives of Windsor (Q₂), Pericles (Q₄), and the apocryphal Yorkshire Tragedy were intended to form part of a collection of plays ascribed to Shakespeare, and that the ‘1600’ editions of Midsummer Night’s Dream (Q₂) and Merchant of Venice (Q₂) bearing the name of the printer Roberts, the ‘1600’ edition of the apocryphal Sir John Oldcastle bearing the initials T. P., the ‘1608’ edition of Henry V (Q₃), the ‘1608’ edition of King Lear (Q₂) lacking the name of the ‘Pide Bull’ shop, and the undated edition of The Whole Contention of York and Lancaster were all also printed in 1619 for the same purpose. The printer seems to have been William Jaggard, with whom was associated Thomas Pavier, who held the copyright of several of the plays. Presumably an intention to prefix a general title-page is the explanation of the shortened imprints characteristic of these editions. The sheets of The Whole Contention and Pericles have in fact continuous signatures; but the plan seems to have been modified, and the other plays issued separately. The bibliographical evidence bearing on this theory is discussed by W. W. Greg, W. Jaggard, A. W. Pollard, and A. H. Huth in 2 Library, ix. 113, 381; x. 208; and 3 Library, i. 36, 46; ii. 101; and summed up by A. W. Pollard, Shakespeare Folios and Quartos, 81. Confirmatory evidence is adduced by W. J. Niedig, The Shakespeare Quartos of 1619 (M. P. viii. 145) and False Dates on Shakespeare Quartos (1910, Century, 912).

S. R. 1623, Nov. 8 (Worrall). ‘Master William Shakspeers Comedyes Histories, and Tragedyes soe manie of the said Copies as are not formerly entred to other men. viz^t Comedyes The Tempest The two gentlemen of Verona Measure for Measure The Comedy of Errors As you like it All’s well that ends well Twelfe Night The winters tale Histories The thirde parte of Henry ye Sixt Henry the eight Tragedies Coriolanus Timon of Athens Julius Caesar Mackbeth Anthonie and Cleopatra Cymbeline’ Blounte and Isaak Jaggard (Arber, iv. 107). [This entry covers all the plays in F₁ not already printed, except Taming of the Shrew, King John, and 2, 3 Henry VI, which were doubtless regarded from the stationer’s point of view as identical with the Taming of A Shrew, Troublesome Reign of King John, and Contention of York and Lancaster, on which they were based. The ‘thirde parte of Henry ye Sixt’ is of course the hitherto unprinted 1 Henry VI.]

[F_{1}] 1623. M^r. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies Published according to the True Originall Copies. By Isaac Iaggard and Ed. Blount. [Colophon] Printed [by W. Jaggard] at the charges of W. Jaggard, Ed. Blount, I. Smethweeke, and W. Aspley. [Verses to the Reader, signed B[en] I[onson]; Portrait signed ‘Martin Droeshout sculpsit London’; Epistles to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery and to the great Variety of Readers, both signed ‘Iohn Heminge, Henry Condell’; Commendatory Verses signed ‘Ben: Ionson’, ‘Hugh Holland’, ‘L. Digges’, ‘I. M.’; ‘The Names of the Principall Actors in all these Playes’; ‘A Catalogue of the seuerall Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies contained in this Volume’.]

S. R. 1627, June 19 [on or after]. Transfer from Dorothy widow of Isaac Jaggard to Thomas and Richard Cotes of ‘her parte in Schackspheere playes’ (Arber, iv. 182).

S. R. 1630, Nov. 16. Transfer from Blount to Robert Allot by note dated 26 June 1630 of his ‘estate and right’ in the sixteen plays of the 1623 entry (Arber, iv. 243).

[F₂] 1632. Thomas Cotes, for John Smethwick, William Aspley, Richard Hawkins, Richard Meighen and Robert Allot. [So colophon: there are t.ps. with separate imprints by Cotes for each of the five booksellers.]