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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 B
Date: 1576-1595
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 306v
Folger Shakespeare Library Staff, "Stationers’ Register entry for Taming of a Shrew and the Rape of Lucrece," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/394.
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Liber B, folio 306 verso. Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/394.
The play called The Taming of a Shrew was entered into Stationer's Liber B on May 2, 1594, as "A plesant Conceyted historie called 'the Tayminge of a Shrowe.'" It was entered by the printer Peter Short. He printed the first quarto edition later that year, and it was sold by Cuthbert Burby. Short printed a second quarto edition in 1596, which was also sold by Burby. The play shares a close relationship to Shakespeare’s play of a similar title, The Taming of the Shrew which was first printed in the 1623 First Folio.
The Rape of Lucrece was entered into Liber B just a few days later, on May 9, 1594, as "the Ravyshement of Lucrece." It was entered by the bookseller John Harrison (known as "the Elder" to distinguish him from his brother of the same name, also a printer and publisher). The first quarto edition was printed later that same year by Richard Field, and sold by Harrison. The poem, dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, was highly popular and went through eight quarto editions before 1641.
Liber B 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]
Master Stirrop Warden
Master Woodcock beinge
deceased./.
primo die maij./.
Mr ffeilde./. Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of the B. of
London and Mr Cawood a booke intituled The
holye historye of our lorde and saviour Jesus Christes
nativitie lyfe, actes, miracle, Doctrine, deathe
passion, Resurreccon and asscention gathered
into Englishe meeter by Robert Holland
Mr of Artes vjd C./.
Secundo die maij
Peter Shorte / Entred vnto him for his copie vnder Mr warden
Cawoodes hande / a booke intituled
A plesant Conceyted historie called
G*S the Tayminge of a Shrowe . . . . vjd /
7 maij
Richard ffeild Assigned ouer to him for his copye
from Mr Bonham norton. by
Consent of a Court holden this
Day. The history of Gwicciardin
conteynynge the warres of Italy
&c and also the argumentes with a table
&c Reduced into English by Geffrey ffenton . . vjd
Richard ffeild Assigned ouer to him from Mr harrison
thelder. Lyacropedius de conscribendis
epistolis . . . vjd
9 maij
Mr harrison Entred for his copie vnder the hand of Mr
Cawood Warden, a booke intituled
the Ravyshement of Lucrece . . . vjd C
xiiijo maij / .
Thomas Creede./. Entred for his copie vnder the hand of Mr
Cawood warden / a booke intituled /.
the famous victories of Henrye the
ffyft / conteyninge the honorable
battell of Agincourt / . . . vjd C
Thomas Creede / Entred vnto him by the like warrant
a booke intituled the Scottishe story
of James the ffourthe slayne at
fflodden intermixed with a plesant
Comedie presented by Oboron kinge
of ffayres . . . vjd C
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): 2:648.
The British Library, "2. William Shakespeare's poems and sonnets," Rev. 1.0.1. Treasures in Full: Shakespeare in Quarto. Last modified December 2, 2004. http://www.bl.uk/treasures/shakespeare/poems.html.
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.
Last updated February 8, 2020