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The late, and much admired play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre.
1609

STC 22335 copy 1, title page

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STC 22335 copy 1, title page
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Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.

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Creator: William Shakespeare
Title: The late, and much admired play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true relation of the whole historie, aduentures, and fortunes of the said prince: as also, the no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the birth and life, of his daughter Mariana. As it hath been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare.
Date: Imprinted at London : [By William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pater-noster row, &c., 1609.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 22335 copy 1, title page
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Item Creator
William Shakespeare
Item Title
The late, and much admired play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true relation of the whole historie, aduentures, and fortunes of the said prince: as also, the no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the birth and life, of his daughter Marian
Item Date
Imprinted at London : [By William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pater-noster row, &c., 1609.
Repository
Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC, USA
Call Number
STC 22335 copy 1, title page

Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
Images that are under Folger copyright are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This allows you to use our images without additional permission provided that you cite the Folger Shakespeare Library as the source and you license anything you create using the images under the same or equivalent license. For more information, including permissions beyond the scope of this license, see Permissions. The Folger waives permission fees for non-commercial publication by registered non-profits, including university presses, regardless of the license they use. For images copyrighted by an entity other than the Folger, please contact the copyright holder for permission information.

Copy-specific information
Creator: William Shakespeare
Title: The late, and much admired play, called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. With the true relation of the whole historie, aduentures, and fortunes of the said prince: as also, the no lesse strange, and worthy accidents, in the birth and life, of his daughter Mariana. As it hath been diuers and sundry times acted by his Maiesties Seruants, at the Globe on the Banck-side. By William Shakespeare.
Date: Imprinted at London : [By William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold at the signe of the Sunne in Pater-noster row, &c., 1609.
Repository: Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC, USA
Call number and opening: STC 22335 copy 1, title page
View online bibliographic record

Jonathan Holmes, "Pericles, second edition," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/673.

Folger Shakespeare Library, STC 22335 copy 1. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/673.

The second edition of Pericles was printed in 1609, the same year as the first. Although the play was entered in the Stationers’ Register on May 20, 1608 as being published by Edward Blount, Henry Gosson in fact published this and the previous edition. William White and Thomas Creede shared the printing of both editions. Gosson appears to have obtained the right to copy the play from Blount, but the transfer was not recorded in the Stationers’ Register.

The second edition is a line-by-line reprint of the first, and some standing type was re-imposed, or re-used before being redistributed into the compositors’ cases, for the edition shown here. The second edition was therefore printed very soon after the first, suggesting that copies of the first edition must have been selling quickly. This edition’s title page also includes that the play was written “By William Shakespeare.” Many scholars now believe that Shakespeare co-authored Pericles, most likely with George Wilkins, who wrote a prose romance version of Pericles published in 1608. Like Two Noble KinsmenPericles is notably absent from the First Folio.

Pericles was among the most popular plays in print during the early 17th century, with a total of six editions published by 1635. The copy shown above is one of six known copies listed in the English Short Title Catalogue; this copy and one other are part of the Folger Shakespeare Library collection. The copy shown here includes the name of a previous owner, Matthew Bell, inscribed on the front endleaf. The title page has been inscribed with the names of two other previous owners, Edward Palmer and Sir John Fenn, and Fenn’s inscription includes the year 1782.

To learn more about this play, please see the page about Pericles on the Folger Shakespeare Library’s Shakespeare's Works and the British Library’s Shakespeare in Quarto, which also includes another copy of this edition.

 

Written by Jonathan Holmes

Sources 

W.W. Greg, Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration. Four Volumes. (London: Oxford UP, 1939-57).

Suzanne Gossett, "Introduction." Pericles. Arden Third Series. (London: Methuen Drama, 2003).

Last updated January 25, 2020