Liber C, folio 161 recto
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The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber C
Date: 1595-1620
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber C, fol. 161r
Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber C
Date: 1595-1620
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber C, fol. 161r
Folger Shakespeare Library Staff, "Stationers' Register entry for the transfer of Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Love's Labor's Lost, and twelve other books in 1607," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/415.
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Liber C, folio 161 recto. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/415.
On November 19, 1607, publisher Nicholas Ling transferred the publication rights to sixteen titles to fellow publisher John Smethwick, in an entry in Liber C of the Stationers' Company. These titles included Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, and Love's Labor's Lost, as well as plays by Thomas Nash and Anthony Munday. Hamlet was entered here as "Hamlett", The Taming of the Shrew was entered as "The taminge of A Shrew", Love's Labor's Lost was entered as "Loues Labour Lost", and Romeo and Juliet was entered as "Romeo and Julett." Ling had only recently acquired the rights to the latter three titles on January 22, 1607 from Cuthbert Burby, and of the three, only produced a quarto edition of Love's Labor's Lost. Hamlet was first entered into Liber C on July 26, 1602 by James Roberts, though Ling's name appears on the title page of both the first and second quarto editions (1603, 1604) as the publisher. There is no record of Roberts transferring his rights to Ling.
John Smethwick published three further quarto editions of Hamlet (1611, ca. 1625, 1637), two known further quarto editions of Romeo and Juliet (1609, 1637), no further editions of The Taming of the Shrew, and one further quarto edition of Love's Labor's Lost (1631). The Taming of the Shrew, as printed by Burby and Ling (and possibly an early or pirated version of the play), was not included in the First and Second Folios, but Hamlet, Love's Labor's Lost, and Romeo and Juliet were all included therein.
Liber C and the other registers with Shakespeare’s works are still kept by the Stationers’ Company in their archives.
[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[Current transcription based on Arber; check back soon for a transcription that conforms to Shakespeare Documented conventions] 1607 5to Regis 161
19. Novembris
Jo. Smythick. Entred for his copies vnder the handes of
the wardens. these bookes followinge
Whiche dyd belonge to Nicholas Lynge
1 Mr Draytons Poemes . . . . . vjd
2 Euphues golden legacie . . . vjd
3 mr Greenes Arcadia . . . . . vjd
4 Greenes neuer to late . . . . . . vjd
5 His Tullies loue . . . . . . vjd
6 A booke called Hamlett . . . . . vjd
7 Three Sermons of Mr Smythes . . . vjd
.8. Wyttes common wealth . . . . . . vjd
9 The taminge of A Shrewe . . . . . vjd
10 Romeo and Julett . . . . . . vjd
11 Loues Labour Lost . . . . . . vjd
12 Smythes common Wealth of England . . . vjd
13 Piers pennyles . . . . vjd
14 Reformation of Couetousnes . . . . . vjd
15 Figure of Fowre . . . . . . . vjd
16 Englishe Romane Lyfe . . vjd
20 Nov
Eleazer Edgar Entred for their copie vnder the handes
Sam. Macham of Mr Ri. Etkins and the Wardens
A Booke called Epistles the first
Volume conteinninge Twoo Decades
By Joseph Hall . . . vjd
26 Nov
Leonard Grene Entred for their Copie vnder the
& Cantrell handes of the Wardens. A booke
called. Doctor Wyllettes Harmony
vppon the Firste of Samuell . . vjd
Sources
Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London: 1554–1640 A.D. 5 vols. (London: privately printed, 1875–94), 3:365.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "Romeo and Juliet," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "The Taming of a Shrew," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "The Taming of the Shrew," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu.
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson,"916. The Taming of the Shrew," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 3, 1590-1597 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 154-9.
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "955. The Taming of a Shrew," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 3, 1590-1597 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 235-8.
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "987. Romeo and Juliet," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 3, 1590-1597 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 268-74.
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "1259. Hamlet," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 4, 1598-1602 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 241-51.
Last updated February 8, 2020
