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 XXII

THE PRINTING OF PLAYS

[Bibliographical Note.—The records of the Stationers' Company were utilized by W. Herbert in Typographical Antiquities (1785-90), based on an earlier edition (1749) by J. Ames, and revised, but not for the period most important to us, by T. F. Dibdin (1810-19). They are now largely available at first hand in E. Arber, ''Transcript of the Registers of the Stationers' Company, 1554-1640 (1875-94), and G. E. B. Eyre, Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, 1640-1708'' (1913-14). Recent investigations are to be found in the Transactions and other publications of the Bibliographical Society, and in the periodicals Bibliographica and The Library. The best historical sketches are H. R. Plomer, A Short History of English Printing (1900), E. G. Duff, ''The Introduction of Printing into England (1908, C. H. ii. 310), H. G. Aldis, The Book-Trade, 1557-1625 (1909, C. H. iv. 378), and R. B. McKerrow, Booksellers, Printers, and the Stationers' Trade (1916, Sh. England'', ii. 212). Of somewhat wider range is H. G. Aldis, The Printed Book (1916). Records of individual printers are in E. G. Duff, ''A Century of the English Book Trade, 1457-1557 (1905), R. B. McKerrow, Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers, 1557-1640 (1910), and H. R. Plomer, Dictionary of Booksellers and Printers, 1641-67 (1907). Special studies of value are R. B. McKerrow, Printers and Publishers' Devices (1913), and Notes on Bibliographical Evidence for Literary Students'' (1914). P. Sheavyn, ''The Literary Profession in the Elizabethan Age'' (1909), is not very accurate. The early history of the High Commission (1558-64) is studied in H. Gee, ''The Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion'' (1898). The later period awaits fuller treatment than that in An Account of the Courts Ecclesiastical by W. Stubbs in the Report of the Commission on Ecclesiastical Courts (1883), i. 21. J. S. Burn, The High Commission (1865), is scrappy.

For plays in particular, W. W. Greg, List of English Plays (1900), gives the title-pages, and Arber the registration entries. Various problems are discussed by A. W. Pollard, Shakespeare Folios and Quartos (1909) and Shakespeare's Fight with the Pirates (1917, ed. 2, 1920), and in connexion with the Shakespearian quartos of 1619 (cf. ch. xxiii). New ground is opened by A. W. Pollard and J. D. Wilson, ''The 'Stolne and Surreptitious' Shakespearian Texts (T. L. S. Jan.-Aug. 1919), and J. D. Wilson, The Copy for Hamlet, 1603, and the Hamlet Transcript, 1593'' (1918). Other studies are C. Dewischeit, Shakespeare und die Stenographie (1898, Jahrbuch, xxxiv. 170), B. A. P. van Dam and C. Stoffel, ''William Shakespeare, Prosody and Text (1900), Chapters in English Printing, Prosody, and Pronunciation'' (1902), P. Simpson, Shakespearian Punctuation (1911), E. M. Albright, To be Staied (1915, M. L. A. xxx. 451; cf. M. L. N., Feb. 1919), A. W. Pollard, Ad Imprimendum Solum (1919, 3 Library, x. 57), H. R. Shipheard, Play-Publishing in Elizabethan Times (1919, M. L. A. xxxiv. 580); M. A. Bayfield, Shakespeare's Versification (1920); cf. T. L. S. (1919-20).

The nature of stage-directions is considered in many works on staging (cf. Bibl. Note to ch. xviii), and in N. Delius, Die Bühnenweisungen in den alten Shakespeare-Ausgaben (1873, Jahrbuch, viii. 171), R. Koppel, Scenen-Einteilung und Orts-Angaben in den Shakespeareschen Dramen (1874, Jahrbuch, ix. 269), Die unkritische Behandlung dramaturgischer Angaben