A Chronology of Playbook Advertisements from English Serials, 1650–1665

By Joshua J. McEvilla ([email protected])

[uploaded 28 July 2017]

Sometimes a reorientation of information is helpful to make significant information useful in a new way. This bibliographic resource aims to do just that: it aims to make useful, principally to literary historians and canon scholars, the print chronology of playbook advertising in English serials from 25 November 1650 to 12 June 1665. I made this information available, principally for bibliographers engaged in the study of editions and issues, in my 2013 Catalogue published by the journal of this Society.1

The following chronology of a small class of information is intended to serve three functions. First, it is to collect together in a single place the dates of all advertisements originally published by Sybil Rosenfeld and copied by W. W. Greg that pertain to the editions and issues described in Greg’s magnum opus A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration.2 For reasons of scope and length, my 2013 Catalogue for the Society omitted all advertisements to which I was unable to add significant new research, and it included entries for the Restoration plays that Rosenfeld overlooked.3 Consider this problem now resolved. Second, its purpose is to simplify the presentation

1 See Joshua McEvilla, “A Catalogue of Book Advertisements from English Serials: Printed Drama, 1646–1668,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 107, no. 1 (2013): 10–48. 2 Sybil Rosenfeld, “Dramatic Advertisements in the Burney Newspapers 1660–1700,” PMLA 51, no. 1 (March, 1936): 123–52; W. W. Greg, “Advertisements in Newspapers” (3:1189–90), in A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, 4 vols. (London: For the Bibliographical Society, 1939–59); Greg, Bibliography, volumes 1 and 2. 3 McEvilla, “Catalogue,” 13–17.

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of the data for non-bibliographers—scholars who may not see the need to find in one place the comparative date, title, and author entries from resources of a similar nature to the advertisements, such as the licences in the Stationers’ Registers, the Thomason tract title-page inscriptions, and variant issues of the title pages.4 Such notes are a reflection of the fascinating original scholarship of the Catalogue but often overshadow the sequential printing of the advertisements as part of a chronology. Third, the Chronology allows me to redress what I see as an unfortunate omission of two images that help to illustrate the deficiencies of a barely modified system of quasi-facsimile for capturing the visual features of a few advertisements. Two advertisements may convey essential information on the possible sale of serial play collections as partial ‘nonce’ volumes.5 The impact of these advertisements is too nuanced to be conveyed effectively through textual transcription, and proper visual reproduction of the adverts, via surrogate imaging, would have been beyond the financial limits of PBSA’s budget.

So I would argue that this reorientation of the information of playbook advertising, from the earliest advertisement that I found through to the last such advertisement before the first ‘term catalogue,’ is essential to scholarship: it presents a very different canon of early modern drama, both theatrically and bibliographically, from any other resource.6 With regard to theatrical authorship, the list conveys 93 plays with acknowledged contributions from 44 authors and 5 translators. The advertisements refer to as many as 41 bibliographically independent publications.7 What is especially remarkable, the list contains no Shakespeare and no Jonson, no Marlowe and only a couple of small nods to Fletcher.8 Unlike the booksellers’ catalogues of the period and the advertising lists printed separately from but bound into books, the advertisements from serials omit virtually all reference to these celebrity authors of ‘The Shakespearian Stage.’9 Such a point makes the list fundamentally more progressive than the grouping and selective-

4 G. E. B. Eyre and G. R. Rivington (ed.), A Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers from 1640–1708 A.D., 3 vols. (London: Privately Printed, 1913–14); G. F. Fortescue, Catalogue of the Pamphlets, Books, Newspapers and Manuscripts Relating to the Civil War, the Commonwealth, and Restoration, Collected by George Thomason, 1640–1661, 2 vols. (London: British Museum, 1908). 5 On ‘serialization,’ see Paulina Kewes, “‘Give Me the Sociable Pocket-Books …’: Humphrey Moseley’s Serial Publication of Octavo Play Collections,” Publishing History 38 (1995): 5–21. On the idea of ‘nonce’ collections, see Arthur Freeman, “Octavo Nonce Collections of John Taylor,” The Library 5th ser., 18 (1963): 51–57. 6 On the ‘term catalogues,’ see Edward Arber (ed.), The Term Catalogues, 1668–1700 A.D., 3 vols. (London: Privately Printed, 1903–6), 1:xi. 7 I have calculated this figure based on evidence collected from Greg, Bibliography, and English Short Title Catalogue, http://estc.bl.uk, accessed 9 July 2017. 8 See McEvilla, “Catalogue,” 34 (item no. 31), for an advertisement of John Fletcher’s Faithful Shepherdess with Richard Fanshawe’s translation as La Fida Pastora (London: G. Bedell and T. Collins, 1658). The advert for the 5th ed. is in Rosenfeld, “Dramatic Advertisements,” 130, and Greg, Bibliography, 3:1189. 9 Adam G. Hooks, “Booksellers’ Catalogues and the Classification of Printed Drama in Seventeenth- Century England,” PBSA 102, no. 4 (2008): 445–64; Peter Lindenbaum, “Publishers’ Booklists in Late Seventeenth-Century London,” The Library 7th ser., 11, no. 4 (2010): 381–404.

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focus mechanisms offered by other list-resources of period drama, such as the Stationers’ Registers, Henslowe’s Diary, Bawcutt’s reconstruction of the ‘lost’ office book of Sir Henry Herbert, and so on.10 This list is dominated by the likes of the lesser-known Jacobean and Caroline writers Middleton and Massinger, and James Shirley and Richard Brome.

Concerning bibliographic canon formation, on the other hand, we can see evanescent signs of stationers applying retail techniques that may inform or challenge our understanding of the reputations of particular dramatists and play-authorship today. Arranged in this way, the data from the advertising calls attention to the wholesale transfer of stock in Richard Brome’s Five New Playes (1653) from the original investors, Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring, to a new stationer, John Sweeting, in late 1653.11 Presumably in an attempt to recover his investment capital in the volume as quickly as possible, Sweeting can be seen from the chronology embarking on an advertising campaign to offload his stock to clients within a matter of months. The original stationers advertised the collection twice in two well-established, long-running serials, A Perfect Diurnall (16 May 1653) and Severall Proceedings of State-Affairs (16 June 1653). Sweeting advertised the plays together ten times, in three different journals, between 9 November 1653 and 28 December 1653.12 As various copies of this collection are extant with a cancel title page of “1654” and the location of Sweeting’s shop at the “Angel in Popeshead-Alley,” one may suppose that Brome’s poor reputation as a minor dramatist today might be in part an extension of the unmarketability of his plays as a posthumous volume approximately a year after his death.13 One can infer a problematic relationship between Brome’s print and stage popularity.

Moreover, notions of ‘authority’ and ‘genre’ are displayed as strikingly flexible, as a result of this ‘list’ formatting and the embedded facsimile images of a few of the advertisements. Although I remain unsure as to how to interpret the precise meaning of the advertisement of a “newly printed four excellent new Playes, viz.” from The Faithful Scout of 21 September 1655 (see Illustration 1), I am confident that several of the most visible textual features of the advert, best observed from the facsimile image, point to the possible scenario that the stationer was intending a mixed-author, cross-genre collection:

10 Eyre and Rivington, Transcript; Henslowe’s Diary, ed. by R. A. Foakes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002); N. W. Bawcutt (ed.), The Control and Censorship of Caroline Drama: The Records of Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels 1623–73 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996). 11 Richard Brome, Five New Playes, ed. by Alexander Brome (London: Humphrey Moseley, Richard Marriot, and Thomas Dring, 1653); Richard Brome, Five New Playes, ed. by Alexander Brome (London: J. Sweeting, 1654). 12 See McEvilla, “Catalogue,” 26–27 (item 17). Sweeting advertised the volume in A Perfect Diurnal (once), A Perfect Account of the Daily Intelligence (6 times), and The Faithful Scout (3 times). 13 Eleanor Lowe, “Confirmation of Richard Brome’s Final Years in Charterhouse Hospital,” Notes & Queries 252, no. 4 (December, 2007): 416–18. On copies of the collection with the Sweeting imprint, see Richard Brome Online, ed. by Richard Cave, https://www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome, uploaded 2010, accessed 9 July 2017.

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the triple-star symbol (an upside-down ‘asterism,’ “⁂”), the formula “new Playes” as distinct from “newly printed,” and the very-common “viz.” The other embedded image (Illustration 2) depicts the page layout of an advertisement potentially for a collection of two plays by Middleton—as title-page evidence from the volume suggests was most regular—of a three-play collection of plays that Middleton wrote, variously addressing topics of womanhood—as significant research into extant configurations of the collection does permit—or a mixed-author volume of three plays by Middleton and two by the courtier-dramatist Lodowick Carlell, which would, in effect, bring a volume together in line with the expectations of similar play-anthologies financed by the stationer:14 Moseley backed Shirley’s Six New Playes originally as a collection of “Five New Playes,” and he ought to be regarded as the prime mover behind Brome’s Five New Playes of 1653.15 It is to be noted that Moseley was also largely responsible for a collection of two Shirley plays and three Massinger plays printed in 1655 (possible nonce?). From the advertisement of “these Five new Plays” of Publick Intelligencer 6 July 1657, there is good cause to question the intended meaning of Moseley’s visually evocative squiggly brackets. Squiggly brackets are a textual feature of the visual rhetoric of the serial-advertising genre that defy quasi-facsimile conventions.

My approach for the design of this project thus negotiates a different balance between the needs of simplicity and economy from my 2013 Catalogue. The newsbooks of this period appeared in print with a date range instead of a single day of publication on their title pages. I include only the initial date for each—the start of the news cycle rather than the date of first circulation. Each date is silently corrected and regularized in New Style, following Carolyn Nelson and Matthew Seccombe’s British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1641–1700: A Short-Title Catalogue of Serials Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and British America (1987).16 For all authorship, edition, and issue analysis, I turn to my 2013 Catalogue. To achieve this brevity, I use special symbols: an asterisk (“*”) denotes that the date of the advert differs from the date of the book’s title page (the year of publication); a dagger (“†”) indicates that the title has been inferred from a different title given by the stationer in the advert. Following the Chicago Manual of Style’s system of referencing a work of the same author from a “Works Cited” list, an em-dash (“—”) registers that the list-entry repeats, in all essential details but the date, the heading above it.

Consider this bibliographic resource a ‘quick reference’ for making important and very fascinating information usable in a new way. This is the first independent advertising chronology of the plays of the ‘Shakespearian’ stage.

14 See Kewes, “‘Give Me … ,’” 8–10. 15 McEvilla, “Catalogue,” 24 (item 12). 16 Carolyn Nelson and Matthew Seccombe, British Newspapers and Periodicals, 1641–1700: A Short- Title Catalogue of Serials Printed in England, Scotland, Ireland, and British America (New York: Modern Language Association, 1987).

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Chronology

25 Nov. 1650 * Seneca, Hippolitus, tr. E. Prestwich (G. Bodington, 1651).

5 May 1651 T. Carew, Poems with a Maske, 3rd ed., with Coelum Britannicum, (J. Martin).

23 June 1651 L. Willan, Astraea (H. Cripps & L. Lloyd).

14 Nov. 1651 † J. S., [The Prince of Priggs Revels], from “A Comedy of Hind’s Figaries” and “Hind’s Fegaries; A Comedy.” (R. Wood).

21 Nov. 1651 —.

1 Dec. 1651 * J. Tatham, The Scots Figgaries (I. Tey, 1652).

11 Dec. 1651 * —.

26 Jan. 1652 C. Manuche, The Just General (M. Meighen, T. Collins, & G. Bedell).

12 Feb. 1652 —.

4 Mar. 1652 T. Goffe, The Bastard (M. Meighen, T. Collins, & G. Bedell).

17 June 1652 T. Randolph, Poems, 4th ed., with The Muses Looking-Glasse, Amyntas, The Jealous Lovers, Aristippus, & The Pedler (W. Roybould).

21 June 1652 —.

8 Nov. 1652 C. Manuche, The Loyal Lovers (T. Eglesfield).

6 Dec. 1652 * T. Middleton & W. Rowley, The Changeling (H. Moseley, 1653).

31 Jan. 1653 F. Beaumont, Poems, with A Maske of the Gentlemen of Graies Inne, 10th ed. (W. Hope).

31 Jan. 1653 J. Shirley, Six New Playes, with The Brothers, The Sisters, The Doubtful Heir, The Imposture, The Cardinal, & The Court Secret (H. Moseley).

9 May 1653 T. Middleton & W. Rowley, The Spanish Gipsie (R. Marriot).

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16 May 1653 R. Brome, Five New Playes, with The Mad Couple Well Matcht, The Novella, The Court Beggar, The City Wit, & The Damoiselle (H. Moseley, R. Marriot, & T. Dring).

16 June 1653 —.

27 June 1653 F. Beaumont, Poems, with A Maske of the Gentlemen of Graies Inne, 10th ed. (L. Blaiklock).

27 Oct. 1653 * R. Mead, The Combat of Love and Friendship (M. Meighen, T. Collins, & G. Bedell, 1654).

9 Nov. 1653 * Brome, Five New Playes (J. Sweeting, 1654).

11 Nov. 1653 * —.

14 Nov. 1653 * —.

23 Nov. 1653 * —.

30 Nov. 1653 * —.

2 Dec. 1653 * —.

9 Dec. 1653 * —.

14 Dec. 1653 * —.

21 Dec. 1653 * —.

28 Dec. 1653 * —.

16 Jan. 1654 G. Chapman, Alphonsus, Emperour of Germany (H. Moseley).

16 Oct. 1654 * P. Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, 10th ed., with Her Most Excellent Majestie Walking in Wanstead Garden (G. Calvert & T. Pierrepont, 1655).

29 Jan. 1655 J. Shirley, The Gentleman of Venice & The Politician (H. Moseley).

13 June 1655 P. Corneille, Polyeuctes, tr. W. Lower (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

18 June 1655 R. Baron, Mirza (H. Moseley & T. Dring).

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21 June 1655 T. Stanley, The History of Philosophy, with Aristophanes, The Clouds of Aristophanes, tr. T. Stanley (H. Moseley & T. Dring).

25 June 1655 —.

25 June 1655 P. Massinger, Three New Playes, with The Bashful Lover, The Guardian, & A Very Woman (H. Moseley).

21 Sept. 1655 † “There is newly printed four excellent new Playes, viz.,” T. Heywood & W. Rowley, [Fortune by Land and Sea], from “Fortune by sea and land”; A. Brewer, The Love-Sick King; R. Dauborne, The Poor-Mans Comfort; & W. Rider, The Twins (R. Pollard & J. Sweeting).

21 Apr. 1656 T. Goffe, Three Excellent Tragedies, 2nd ed., with The Raging Turk, The Courageous Turk, & Orestes (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

4 June 1657 R. Brome, The Queenes Exchange (H. Brome).

6 July 1657 “There is extant these Five new Plays,” with T. Middleton, No Wit, No Help Like a Woman’s, Two New Playes, with More Dissemblers Besides Women, & Women Beware Women; & L. Carlell, Two New Playes, with The Fool Would be a Favourit & Osmond the Great Turk (H. Moseley).

18 Feb. 1658 T. May, The Old Couple (S. Speed).

13 May 1658 † W. Davenant, [The First Days Entertainment at Rutland House], from “Satyrical Declamations” (H. Herringman).

14 June 1658 J. Fletcher, La Fida Pastora, tr. R. Fanshawe (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

17 June 1658 La Fida Pastora; & J. Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, 4th ed. (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

18 Oct. 1658 G. Ruggle, Ignoramus, 3rd ed. (J. Stafford).

27 Jan. 1659 † * G. Swinhoe, [The Unhappy Fair Irene], from “The Tragedy of Irene the fair Greek” (J. Place & W. Place, 1658).

24 Feb. 1659 J. Shirley, Honoria and Mammon [2nd ed.] & The Contention of Ajax and Ulysses (J. Crook).

18 Apr. 1659 L. Carlell, The Deserving Favorite (H. Moseley).

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28 Apr. 1659 —.

5 May 1659 † A. Cokayne, A Chain of Golden Poems, with The Obstinate Lady & [Trappolin Supposed a Prince], from “Traphon supposed a Prince” (I. Pridmore).

6 June 1659 W. Montague, The Shepheard’s Paradise (J. Starkey).

13 June 1659 J. Suckling, The Last Remains of Sir John Suckling, with The Sad One (H. Moseley).

13 June 1659 W. Lower, The Enchanted Lovers (H. Herringman).

16 June 1659 Suckling, The Last Remains.

26 Jan. 1660 T. Tasso, Aminta, tr. J. Dancer (J. Starkey).

26 Jan. 1660 * Montague, The Shepheard’s Paradise [delayed advert 1659?].

2 Feb. 1660 * Ruggle, Ignoramus, 4th ed. (J. Clarke, 1659).

23 Feb. 1660 * —.

18 June 1660 Tasso, Aminta.

21 June 1660 —.

25 June 1660 —.

21 Mar. 1661 T. Middleton, The Mayor of Quinborough, “a Tragedy” (H. Herringman).

9 May 1661 Middleton, The Mayor of Quinborough, “a Pleasant and Witty Comedy” (H. Herringman).

31 Oct. 1661 R. Brome, A Jovial Crew, 2nd ed. (H. Brome).

21 Aug. 1662 R. Davenport, King John and Matilda, 2nd ed. (R. Gammon).

13 Feb. 1662 † W. Hemings, [The Jewes Tragedy], from “The Fatal Overthrow of the Jews,” & The Fatal Contract (R. Gammon).

17 Feb. 1662 —.

11 June 1662 Sidney, The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia.

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13 Nov. 1662 * Shirley, Honoria & Contention [undated ed.?].

3 Nov. 1662 Gratiae Theatrales, with T. W., Thorny-Abbey; M. W., The Marriage-Broker; & I. T., Grim the Collier of Croydon (N.P.).

1 Dec. 1662 * Shirley, Honoria & Contention [undated ed.?].

24 Nov. 1662 —.

23 Apr. 1663 A. Cowley, Cutter of Coleman-Street (H. Herringman).

5 Nov. 1663 W. Davenant, The Siege of Rhodes 1 [2nd ed.] & 2 (H. Herringman).

28 Jan. 1664 T. Killigrew, Comedies and Tragedies, with Bellamira her Dream, 1 & 2; Cicilia and Clorinda, 1 & 2; Claricilla; The Parsons Wedding; The Pilgrim; The Princesse; The Prisoners; & Thomaso, 1 & 2 (H. Herringman).

11 Feb. 1664 —.

28 Mar. 1664 * R. Brome, The Northern Lasse, 2nd ed. (A. Moseley, 1663).

28 Mar. 1664 G. B. Guarini, Il Pastor Fido, tr. R. Fanshawe, 4th ed. (A. Moseley).

9 May 1664 —.

12 May 1664 Killigrew, Comedies and Tragedies.

27 Apr. 1665 J. Webster, The White Devil, 2nd ed. (J. Playfere & W. Crook).

8 June 1665 W. Davenant, Two Excellent Plays, 2nd ed., with The Wits & The Platonic Lovers (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

8 June 1665 Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess, 5th ed. (G. Bedell & T. Collins).

12 June 1665 Davenant, Two Excellent Plays.

12 June 1665 Fletcher, The Faithful Shepherdess.

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Illus. 1.: An advertisement possibly for a ‘nonce’ collection of plays by multiple authors, from books of the same stationer; The Faithful Scout (21 September 1655), from Early English Books Online, ed. by ProQuest. http://eebo.chadwyck.com, accessed 9 July 2017.

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Illus. 2.: Advertisements possibly for one or several ‘nonce’ collections from Humphrey Moseley; The Publick Intelligencer (7 July 1657), from Early English Books Online, ed. by ProQuest. http://eebo.chadwyck.com, accessed 9 July 2017.

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