William Aspley

William Aspley

William Aspley (died 1640) was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. He was a member of the publishing syndicates that issued the First Folio and Second Folio collections of Shakespeare's plays, in 1623 and 1632. [F. E. Halliday, "A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964," Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 39, 170-1.]

Career

The publisher was the son of a William Aspley of Royston, Cambridgeshire; he served a nine-year apprenticeship under George Bishop that started at Christmas 1587. Aspley's professional career was notable for its longetivity: he became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company on April 4, 1597, [Joseph Ames, "Typographical Antiquities," 3rd edition, London, 1790; pp. 1384-5.] and remained active for the next four decades. He served in the office of Master of the Company in 1640, the year he died. His shops were located 1) at the sign of the Tiger's Head, and 2) at the sign of the Parrot, both in St. Paul's Churchyard. (The Parrot was on the same block as the shop of First Folio colleague Edward Blount, at the sign of the Black Bear.)

hakespeare

Aspley's connection with the Shakespeare canon began in 1600: on August 23 of that year, he and fellow stationer Andrew Wise entered into the Stationers' Register the plays "Henry IV, Part 2" and "Much Ado About Nothing", so establishing their right to publish the works. Both plays were issued in individual quartos before the end of 1600, editions printed for Wise and Aspley by Valentine Simmes. [E. K. Chambers, "The Elizabethan Stage," 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 3, p. 485.] [Halliday, pp. 215, 326-7.] Neither play appears to have been a major success in printed form, since neither was reprinted prior to its inclusion in the First Folio in 1623.

Aspley had another, minor link to Shakespeare: some copies of Thomas Thorpe's first edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609) read "to be sold by William Aspley" on their title pages. Yet it was his possession of the copyrights to two Shakespearean plays that won him inclusion in the First Folio syndicate. At the start of the 17th century's third decade, when Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard were preparing to publish the First Folio, they needed to obtain the rights to eighteen Shakespearean plays already in print. (They had trouble getting the rights to "Troilus and Cressida," and stuck that play into the First Folio late and unpaginated.) [Halliday, p. 502.] Aspley's price for his rights was inclusion in the syndicate as one of its "junior partners," [Halliday, p. 170.] along with John Smethwick. It is not known that Aspley played any active role in the publication of the First Folio; but he maintained his rights through Robert Allot's publication of the Second Folio in 1632.

Other drama

Aspley also published some other play texts of English Renaissance drama, including: [Chapman, Vol. 3, pp. 253-4, 291, 431; Vol. 4, p. 52.]
* the anonymous "A Warning for Fair Women" (1599);
* Thomas Dekker's "Old Fortunatus" (1600);
* the two quartos of Marston's "The Malcontent" that appeared in 1604;
* the two quartos of the famously controversial "Eastward Ho" (By Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston) that were both issued in 1605;
* the first two quartos of George Chapman's "Bussy D'Ambois" (Q1, 1607; Q2, 1608).

Other works

And of course Aspley published a great variety of other works during his long career, by authors ranging from Francis Bacon to José de Acosta. He issued an abundant supply of religious works, as was normal for his era; John Boys's "An Exposition of the Last Psalm" (1615) is only one example. One curious item in Apsley's catalogue was Sebastien Michaelis's "The Admirable History of Possession and Conversion of a Penitent Woman: Seduced by a Magician that Made Her to Become a Witch" (1613).

References


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • William Ponsonby (publisher) — William Ponsonby (died 1604) was a prominent London publisher of the Elizabethan era. Active in the 1577 ndash;1603 period, Ponsonby published the works of Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and other members of the Sidney circle; [Michael… …   Wikipedia

  • Aspley, Queensland — Infobox Australian Place | type = suburb name = Aspley city = Brisbane state = qld caption = Gympie Road, Aspley. lga = Brisbane City Council postcode = 4034 pop = 11,840 (2006) area = propval = stategov = Electoral district of Aspley fedgov =… …   Wikipedia

  • Aspley, Nottingham — infobox UK place country = England static static image caption= latitude= 52.98 longitude= 1.20 official name = Aspley population = shire district=Nottingham shire county= Nottinghamshire region= East Midlands constituency westminster= post town …   Wikipedia

  • Andrew Crooke and William Cooke — Andrew Crooke (died September 20, 1674) and William Cooke (died 1641?) were London publishers of the mid 17th century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James …   Wikipedia

  • Second Folio — is the term applied to the 1632 edition of the works of William Shakespeare, following upon the First Folio of 1623.Much language was updated; there are almost 1,700 changes from the First Folio.The major partners in the First Folio had passed… …   Wikipedia

  • Early texts of Shakespeare's works — Comparison of the To be, or not to be soliloquy in the first three editions of Hamlet, showing the varying quality of the text in the Bad Quarto, the Good Quarto and the First Folio The earliest texts of William Shakespeare s works were published …   Wikipedia

  • John Smethwick — (died 1641) was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. Along with colleague William Aspley, Smethwick was one of the junior partners [F. E. Halliday, A Shakespeare Companion 1564 ndash;1964, Baltimore, Penguin, 1964;… …   Wikipedia

  • Thomas Thorpe — (c. 1569 or 1570 ndash; 1635?) was an English publisher, most famous for publishing Shakespeare s sonnets and several works by Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial. Nineteenth century… …   Wikipedia

  • First Folio —   …   Wikipedia

  • Valentine Simmes — (fl. 1585 ndash; 1622) was an Elizabethan era and Jacobean era printer; he did business in London, on Adling Hill near Bainard s Castle at the sign of the White Swan. Simmes has a reputation as one of the better printers of his generation, and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”