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
