I do not think that it can be assumed that the absence of an entry in the register is evidence that the book was not duly licensed, so far as the ecclesiastical authorities were concerned. If its status was subsequently questioned, the signed copy could itself be produced. Certainly, when a conditional entry had been made, requiring better authority to be obtained, the fulfilment of the condition was by no means always, although it was sometimes, recorded. Possibly the 'better authority' was shown to the warden rather than the clerk. On the other hand, it is certain that, under the ordinances of the Company, publication without entrance exposed the stationer to a fine, and it is therefore probable that entrance was also necessary to secure copyright.[1] Sometimes the omission was repaired on the occasion of a subsequent transfer of interest. So far as plays are concerned, there seems to have been greater laxity in this respect as time went on. Before 1586, or at any rate before 1584, there are hardly any unentered plays, if we make the reasonable assumption that certain prints of 1573 and 1575 appeared in the missing lists for 1571-5.[2] Between 1584 and 1615 the number is considerable, being over fifty, or nearly a quarter of the total number of plays printed during that period. An examination of individual cases does not disclose any obvious reason why some plays should be entered and others not. The unentered plays are spread over the whole period concerned. They come from the repertories of nearly all the theatres. They include 'surreptitious' plays, which may be supposed to have been printed without the consent of the authors or owners, but they also include plays to which prefaces by authors or owners are prefixed. They were issued by publishers of good standing as well as by others less reputable; and as a rule their publishers appear to have been entering or not entering, quite indifferently, at about the same
- [Footnote: for my Money, 1601-16; Troilus and Cressida, 1603-9 (re-entry 1609);
Westward Ho, 1605-7 (conditional entry cancelled); Antony and Cleopatra, 1608-23, (re-entry 1623); 2 Honest Whore, 1608-30 (re-entry 1630); Epicoene, 1610-20 (earlier edition probable; Ignoramus, 1615-30 (re-entry 1630). The glutting of the book-market in 1594 accounts for some of the delays.]
- ↑ ii. 829 (1599), 833 (1601), 835 (1602), 837 (1603).
- ↑ I find no entries of Enough is as Good as a Feast (N.D.), Thyestes (1560), Hercules Furens (1561), Trial of Treasure (1567), God's Promises (1577), perhaps reprints; of Orestes (1567); or of Abraham's Sacrifice (1577) or Conflict of Conscience (1581), perhaps entered in 1571-5. The method of exhaustions suggests that Copland's Robin Hood (N.D.) is the 'newe playe called ' which he entered on 30 Oct. 1560, and that Colwell's Disobedient Child (N.D.) is the unnamed 'interlude for boyes to handle and to passe tyme at christenmas', which he entered in 1569-70.
