English in Print from Caxton to Shakespeare to Milton

5. From the Stage to the Page

137 5 from the stage to the page 5.1 John Bale (1495–1563). A nevve comedy or enterlude concernyng thre lawes, of nature, Moises, and Christe, corrupted by the sodomytes, Pharysies, and papistes: compyled by Iohn Bale: and nowe newly imprynted. London: Thomas Colwell, 1562. ESTC s104458; Greg 24(b); STC 1288. Shelfmark: uiuC iua00768. 5.2 W. S. (fl. 1595). The lamentable tragedie of Locrine, the eldest sonne of King Brutus, discoursing the warres of the Britaines, and Hunnes, with their discomfiture: the Britaines victorie with their accidents, and the death of Albanact. No lesse pleasant then profitable. Newly set foorth, ouerseene and corrected, by VV.S. London: Thomas Creede, 1595. ESTC s106301; Greg 136(a); STC 21528. Shelfmark: uiuC iub00197. 138 C a t a l o g o f t h e e x h i b i t i o n 5.3 The returne from Pernassus: or The scourge of simony. Publiquely acted by the students in Saint Iohns Colledge in Cambridge. London: G. Eld for John Wright, 1606. ESTC s114071; Greg 225(b); STC 19310. Shelfmark: Elizabethan Club 159 (uiuC iua10546). No monopolies or general patents were issued for the printing of plays, masques, or interludes .This may reflect a certain disregard for such works as literature, at least in the Elizabethan period.Whatever the reason,the lack of royal patents for the genre meant that any member of the Stationers’ Company could register and print a work for the stage. Such a situation engendered a degree of disorder.Printers frequently obtained texts in unorthodox ways,infringing on the rights of acting troupes,playwrights,and other printers.In addition, 5.1, title page f r o m t h e s t a g e t o t h e pa g e 139 plays were not well printed as a rule; quick and shoddy in workmanship,they have more in common with ephemera and broadside printing than with other literary imprints. The printers represented here exemplify the irregular world of early play printers in England. None of them was particularly egregious for their times, yet all ran afoul of the law: Thomas Colwell (d. c. 1575) was fined twice for printing works registered to others; Thomas Creede (c.1554–1616) pirated at least one book; and John Danter’s (d.1599) press was raided by the Stationers’ Company in 1597 for secretly printing patented works.1 Thomas Colwell registered and issued more plays than any other printer in the decade between 1562 and 1572, some fourteen in all. John Bale’s Comedy Concernyng Thre Lawes is the first play Colwell published. Bale (see item 3.5), who had recently died, certainly had nothing to do with the printing. But even living playwrights in this period often had little or no participation in the printing of their plays. Typically, an author sold a play to an acting troupe, thereby surrendering all rights to the work. The acting troupe, in turn, 5.2, title page 140 C a t a l o g o f t h e e x h i b i t i o n might sell the text to a printer (usually after the show had run its course),or printers might acquire the text in less legitimate ways in order to capitalize on a play’s popularity while it was still on the boards. By reviving Bale’s play, which was first published in 1548 (under a false imprint during Mary’s reign), Colwell probably hoped to find a new audience for it, banking on a reserve of admiration (safely expressed under Elizabeth) for the reforming zeal of the late Bale. 5.3, fol. b3r f r o m t h e s t a g e t o t h e pa g e 141 Thomas Creede was a prolific printer of plays, issuing some forty-two between 1591 and 1616.2 He is best known as the printer of the first quarto editions of Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI (1594) and Henry V (1600). Creede assigns Locrine, a play about early British history,to “W.S.,”apparently indicating William Shakespeare was the author.And,indeed, the play would appear in the third folio of 1664 among the additional plays attributed to Shakespeare (item 5.31) though it is now consigned to the status of “apocrypha.” Other printers issued quartos with title page attributions to W...