[604] Pollard, Sh. F. 48; F. and Q. 64. More recently A. W. Pollard and J. D. Wilson have developed a theory (T. L. S. Jan.–Aug. 1919) that the ‘bad quartos’ rest upon pre-Shakespearian texts partly revised by Shakespeare, of which shortened transcripts had been made for a travelling company in 1593, and which had been roughly adapted by an actor-reporter so as to bring them into line with the later Shakespearian texts current at the time of publication. Full discussion of this theory belongs to a study of Shakespeare. The detailed application of it in J. D. Wilson, The Copy for Hamlet 1603 and the Hamlet Transcript 1593 (1918), does not convince me that Shakespeare had touched the play in 1593, although I think that the reporter was in a position to make some slight use of a pre-Shakespearian Hamlet. And although travelling companies were doubtless smaller than the largest London companies (cf. chh. xi and xiii, s.v. Pembroke’s), there is no external evidence that special ‘books’ were prepared for travelling. For another criticism of the theory, cf. W. J. Lawrence in T. L. S. for 21 Aug. 1919. Causes other than travelling might explain the shortening of play texts: prolixity, even in an experienced dramatist (cf. t.p. of Duchess of Malfi), the approach of winter afternoons, an increased popular demand for jigs.
[605] Cf. G. Wither, Schollers Purgatory (c. 1625), 28, ‘Yea, by the lawes and Orders of their Corporation, they can and do setle upon the particuler members thereof a perpetuall interest in such Bookes as are Registred by them at their Hall, in their several Names: and are secured in taking the ful benefit of those books, better then any Author can be by vertue of the Kings Grant, notwithstanding their first Coppies were purloyned from the true owner, or imprinted without his leave’.
[606] Pollard, F. and Q. 10. Mr. Pollard seems to suggest (F. and Q. 3) that copyright in a printed book did not hold as against the author. He cites the case of Nashe’s Pierce Pennilesse, but there seems no special reason to assume that in this case, or in those of Gorboduc and Hamlet, the authorized second editions were not made possible by an arrangement, very likely involving blackmail, with the pirate.
[607] Letter in Grosart, Poems of Sidney (1877), i. xxiii. Pollard, F. and Q. 8, says that on other occasions Sidney’s friends approached the Lord Treasurer and the Star Chamber.
[608] Pollard, F. and Q. 7, 11. I am not sure that the appearance of Bacon’s name can be regarded as a recognition of the principle of author’s copyright. He may have been already in the High Commission; he was certainly in that of 1601.
[609] Pollard, Sh. F. 49, 51, speaks of Burby as ‘regaining the copyright’ by his publications, and as, moreover, saving his sixpences ‘as a license was only required for new books’. But surely there was no copyright, as neither Danter nor Burby paid for an entry. I take it that when, on 22 Jan. 1607, R. J. and L. L. L. were entered to Nicholas Ling, ‘by direccõn of a Court and with consent of Master Burby in wrytinge’, the entry of the transfer secured the copyright for the first time.
[610] Arber, iii. 37. The ink shows that there are two distinct entries.
[611] Fleay, L. and W. 40; Furness, Much Ado, ix.
[612] Pollard, F. and Q. 66; Sh. F. 44.
[613] Roberts did not print the 1603 Hamlet, although he did that of 1604; but it must have been covered by his entry of 1602, and this makes it a little difficult to regard him (or Blount in 1609) as the ‘agent’ of the Chamberlain’s.