[564] Various formulae are used, such as ‘assigned vnto him’ (ii. 310, 351), ‘turned ouer to him’ (ii. 369), ‘putt ouer vnto him’ (ii. 431), ‘sold and sett ouer vnto him’ (ii. 350), ‘which he affyrmeth yat he bought of’ (ii. 351), ‘by assent of’ (ii. 415), ‘by thappointment of’ (ii. 667), ‘by the consent of’ (ii. 608), ‘which he bought of’ (ii. 325), &c. A transfer of ‘plaiebookes’ from Sampson Awdeley to John Charlewood on 15 Jan. 1582 (ii. 405) included, besides two plays, Youth and Impatient Poverty, which had been formerly registered, four others, Weather, Four Ps, Love, and Hickscorner, which had been printed before the Register came into existence. I suppose that Charlwood secured copyright in these, but was there any copyright before the entry of 1582?
[565] ii. 377. ‘Tollerated vnto him but not vnder the wardens handes’, 472, ‘beinge broughte to enter by John Woulf without the wardens handes to the copy’. Even in the seventeenth century ballads are sometimes entered without any citation of hands, and in 1643 it was the clerk and not the wardens whom Parliament authorized to license ‘small pamphletts, portratures, pictures, and the like’ (v. liv).
[566] ii. 365, ‘Translated by a French copie whereat was the bishop of Londons hand and master Harrisons’; 440, ‘by commaundement from master warden Newbery vnder his own handwrytinge on the backside of ye wrytten copie’; 443, ‘vnder his hand to the printed copie’; 449, ‘by warrant of master warden Bisshops hand to the former copie printed anno 1584’; 449, ‘by warrant of master warden Bishops hand to the wrytten copie’; 457, ‘by warrant of the wardens handes to thold copie’; 521, ‘with master Hartwelles hand to the Italyan Booke’; 534, ‘alowed vnder master Hartwelles hand, entred by warrant of the subscription of the wardens’, &c.
[567] ii. 434, ‘entred vpon a special knowen token sent from master warden Newbery’; 437, ‘allowed by tharchbishop of Canterbury, by testymonie of the Lord Chenie’; 460, ‘by the wardens appointment at the hall’; 504, ‘by warrant of a letter from Sir Ffrauncis Walsingham to the master and wardens of the Cumpanye’; 523, ‘alowed by a letter or note vnder master Hartwelles hand’; 524, ‘reported by master Fortescue to be alowed by the archbishop of Canterbury’; 633, ‘The note vnder master Justice Ffenners hand is layd vp in the wardens cupbord’; iii. 160, ‘John Hardie reporteth that the wardens are consentinge to thentrance thereof’, &c.
[568] An inventory of 1560 (i. 143) records ‘The nombre of all suche Copyes as was lefte in the Cubberde in our Counsell Chambre at the Compte ... as apereth in the whyte boke for that yere ... xliiij. Item in ballettes ... vije iiijx and xvj’. From 1576 to 1579 ‘and a copie’ is often added to the notes of fees. The wardens accounts from 1574 to 1596 (i. 470, 581) regularly recite that they had ‘deliuered into the hall certen copies which haue been printed this yeare, as by a particular booke thereof made appearithe’.
[569] ii. 452, ‘Receaved of him for printinge 123 ballades which are filed vp in the hall with his name to euerie ballad’. The order of 1592 about Dr. Faustus (cf. ch. xxiii) suggests preliminary entry of claims in a Hall book distinct from the Clerk’s book.
[570] ii. 414, ‘Graunted by the Assistants’; 449, ‘entred in full court’; 462, ‘entred in plena curia’; 465, ‘intratur in curia’; 477, ‘by the whole consent of thassistantes’; 535, ‘aucthorysed to him at the hall soe that yt doe not belonge to any other of the Cumpanye’; 535, ‘This is allowed by the consent of the whole table’; 663, ‘in open court’; 344, ‘memorandum that this lycence is revoked and cancelled’; 457, ‘This copie is forbydden by the Archbishop of Canterbury’, with marginal note ‘Expunctum in plena curia’; 514, ‘so yat he first gett yt to be laufully and orderly alowed as tollerable to be printed and doo shewe thaucthoritie thereof at a Court to be holden’; 576, ‘Cancelled out of the book, for the vndecentnes of it in diuerse verses’; iii. 82, ‘Entred ... in full court ... vppon condicon that yt be no other mans copie, and that ... he procure it to be aucthorised and then doo shew it at the hall to the master and wardens so aucthorised’.
[571] The register indicates that even at the time of entry the fee sometimes remained unpaid. But probably it had to be paid before the stationer could actually publish with full security of copyright.
[572] Cf. p. 173.
[573] I note twenty-two cases (1586–1616) in which the earliest print known falls in a calendar year later than the next after that of entry: Spanish Tragedy, 1592–4 (N.D. probably earlier); Soliman and Perseda, 1592–9 (N.D. probably earlier); James IV, 1594–8; Famous Victories, 1594–8; David and Bethsabe, 1594–9; King Leire, 1594–1605 (re-entry 1605); Four Prentices, 1594–1615 (one or more earlier editions probable); Jew of Malta, 1594–1633 (re-entry 1632); Woman in the Moon, 1595–7; George a Greene, 1595–9; Merchant of Venice, 1598–1600 (conditional entry); Alarum for London, 1600–2 (conditional entry); Patient Grissell, 1600–3 (stayed by Admiral’s); Stukeley, 1600–5; Dr. Faustus, 1601–4; Englishmen for my Money, 1601–16; Troilus and Cressida, 1603–9 (re-entry 1609); Westward Ho!, 1605–7 (conditional entry cancelled); Antony and Cleopatra, 1608–23, (re-entry 1623); 2 Honest Whore, 1608–30 (re-entry 1630); Epicoene, 1610–20 (earlier edition probable); Ignoramus, 1615–30 (re-entry 1630). The glutting of the book-market in 1594 accounts for some of the delays.