Thomas Thorpe
Lyra
(quote)
Thomas Thorpe
Thomas Thorpe (c. 1569 or 1570 – 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 critics thought that he might have published the poems without
Shakespeare's consent; Sidney Lee called him "predatory and
irresponsible." Conversely, modern scholars Wells and Taylor assert
their verdict that "Thorpe was a reputable publisher, and there is
nothing intrinsically irregular about his publication."[1]
Contents
* 1 Life
o 1.1 The Sonnets
* 2 Notable published works
* 3 Notes
* 4 References
Life
The son of an innkeeper in Barnet, Middlesex, Thorpe worked as an
apprentice to Richard Watkins for nine years in a small shop.
In 1594 Thorpe obtained his publishing rights, but was still without
his printing rights. His first book published was The First Book of
Lucan, Marlowe's translation of the Pharsalia, the copyright of which
he received from Edward Blount, who would come to be a close friend of
Thorpe's. He then returned the favor by dedicating the volume to
Blount, which was quite unorthodox for the time: publications were
generally dedicated to noblemen, local celebrities, aristocracy,
royalty, and other men of distinction.
In 1605 Thorpe's publishing career took off, as he published George
Chapman's All Fools and Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall, the latter of
which was also provided by Blount. It has even been speculated that
Jonson himself may have even been involved in the printing, with one
critic noting "The exactness of the marginal annotations, the
closeness with which the typography conveyed Jonson's metrical
intentions, and the corrections made in proof all suggest that Jonson
oversaw the printing himself."[citation needed]
Thorpe was a mysterious anomaly among the stationers of his
generation: there is no evidence that he ever maintained either a
print shop or a bookshop — and without such a facility it is hard to
comprehend how he stayed in business.
Yet he managed: he commissioned printers to do his printing and
arranged for booksellers to sell his books. For one example, his 1609
edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (see below) was printed by George
Eld, and sold by William Aspley and William Wright. Thorpe had a
cryptic relationship with Aspley; together the two men entered plays
into the Stationers' Register — The Malcontent on July 5, 1604, and
Eastward Ho on September 4, 1605 — yet when the plays were published
soon after, they were issued by Aspley alone.[2]
Thorpe remained in business until at least 1624, when he and Blount
transferred the copyright of Marlowe's Hero and Leander to fellow
stationer Simon Vicars.[3]
In 1635 Thorpe retired to a poorhouse in Ewelme and died there shortly
after, in his 60s.
The Sonnets
In 1609, Thorpe published the most important work of his career,
Shakespeare's Sonnets. His apparent disregard for Shakespeare's
permission earned him a poor reputation, although modern author
Katherine Duncan-Jones has argued that he was not such a "scoundrel"
as he was portrayed, and the amiable and admirable Blount would
certainly not associate with him if he was a scoundrel.
It has even been suggested that Shakespeare did sell his manuscript to
Thorpe, because of his acquaintance with Jonson as an actor in
Sejanus, who may have recommended Thorpe to him as a good publisher.
The dedication, which is addressed to a mysterious Mr. W.H., may have
been written either by Shakespeare himself or by Thorpe. Popular
belief, however, is that Shakespeare is the author of the dedication,
but the identity of Mr. W.H. is not known. Thorpe was probably
responsible for the arrangement of the sonnets, with 1-17 being the
"procreation sonnets", 18-126 being love sonnets to the Fair Youth
(for the most part), and 127-154 being written on a variety of
subjects, including politics, sex, and the Dark Lady. Critics have
argued that Thorpe's arrangement of the sonnets is clumsy and
superficial.[citation needed]
Notable published works
* 1600- The First Book of Lucan by Christopher Marlowe
* 1605- All Fools by George Chapman
* 1605- Sejanus by Ben Jonson
* 1606- The Gentleman Usher by George Chapman
* 1606- Hymenaei by Ben Jonson
* 1607- What You Will by John Marston
* 1607- Volpone by Ben Jonson
* 1608- The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Beauty by Ben
Jonson
* 1608- The Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron by
George Chapman
* 1609- Shake-speare's sonnets by William Shakespeare
Notes
1. ^ Wells and Taylor, p. 444.
2. ^ Chambers, Vol. 3, pp. 254, 431.
3. ^ Halliday, p. 494.
References
* Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1923.
* Duncan-Jones, Katherine. "Was the 1609 Shake-Speares Sonnets
Really Unauthorized?" Review of English Studies, New Series Vol. 34,
No. 134 (May 1983), pp. 151-71.
* Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Balimore,
Penguin, 1964.
* Wells, Stanley, and Gary Taylor. William Shakespeare: A Textual
Companion. New York, W. W. Norton, 1997.
* Thorpe at Marlovian.com
Lyra
Lyra wrote:
```````````````````
Note the name
Richard Watkins -
it seems likely to be the same
Richard Watkins
who is referred to in the will of
John Whitney -
employed by the Archbishop of Canbterbury.
(and who is Eleanor Bull's uncle)
```````````````````
Lyra
Lyra wrote:
>
> >
> > (quote)
> >
> > Thomas Thorpe
> >
> >
> > Thomas Thorpe (c. 1569 or 1570 � 1635?) was an English publisher, most
> > famous for publishing Shakespeare's sonnets and several works by
> > Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.
>
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
> >
> > Life
> >
> > The son of an innkeeper in Barnet, Middlesex, Thorpe worked as an
> > apprentice to Richard Watkins for nine years in a small shop.
>
`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
> >
> > In 1594 Thorpe obtained his publishing rights, but was still without
> > his printing rights.
>
> His first book published was The First Book of
> > Lucan, Marlowe's translation of the Pharsalia, the copyright of which
> > he received from Edward Blount, who would come to be a close friend of
> > Thorpe's.
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
>
> Note the name
>
> Richard Watkins -
`````````
>
> it seems likely to be the same
>
> Richard Watkins
`````````
>
> who is referred to in the will of
>
> John Whitney -
`````````
>
> employed by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
>
> (and who is Eleanor Bull's uncle)
>
```````````````````
(quote, excerpts)
In the Prerogative Court also was proved the will of
John Whitney, a friend of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, who evidently died a bachelor.
THE WILL OF JOHN WHITNEY,
OF ST. SEPULCHRE, LONDON, GENTLEMAN.
Dated 21 May 1597. P. C. C. 46 Cobham.
In the name of God amen The one and twenteth day of
May in the nine and thirtieth yeare of the raigne of or
Sovraigne Lady Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of
England Fraunce and Ireland Defender of the faith &c I
JOHN WHITNEY of London, gentleman, being sick in body
but of good and pfect minde and memory (laude and praise
be geven to Almightie god therefore), Doe make and declare
this my last will and testament in manner and fourme fol-
lowing that is to Say
```````````````````
Item I geue & bequeath to
the most Reverend father in god
JOHN by the puydence of God Archbishop of Canter-bury
my very good lorde and mro
my ring of gould set wth
a turquoys in tokenn of my good will towardes his grace.
```````````````````
Item I geue and bequeath to my loving freende Henry
Maylord my fetherbedd, boulster, pillowes, Twoo Spanish
blanckette, and twoo Cadowes.
Item I geue and bequeath to Elizabeth Dicke my Chest,
And to Joane Newman my Cupbourde, And to Richard
Wrighte fourtie Shillinges in monny.
http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Archive:The_Ancestry_of_John_Whitney%2C_Chapter_VII
```````````````````
And over seer of this my last will and testament I make &
ordaine
my loving freend Richard Watkins
of london Staconer
to whome for his paines in this behalf to be takenn I
geue and bequeath the some of fiue poundes.
````````````````````````````
"Staconer"
Isn't this likely to be
Stationer -
I know the writing is difficult to interpret sometimes.
http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Archive:The_Ancestry_of_John_Whitney%2C_Chapter_VII
```````````````````
I've found the will itself,
and there seems to be a letter "i" in the word
"Staconer" -
this makes it
"Stacioner"
-
stationer?
This makes it very much more likely that the two
"Richard Watkins"'s
are one man.
```````````````````
http://wiki.whitneygen.org/wrg/index.php/Archive:PCC%2C_Sir_John_Whitney%2C_1597
```````````````````
>
>
> He then returned the favor by dedicating the volume to
> > Blount, which was quite unorthodox for the time: publications were
> > generally dedicated to noblemen, local celebrities, aristocracy,
> > royalty, and other men of distinction.
`````````
> >
> > His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial. Nineteenth-
> > century critics thought that he might have published the poems without
> > Shakespeare's consent; Sidney Lee called him "predatory and
> > irresponsible." Conversely, modern scholars Wells and Taylor assert
> > their verdict that "Thorpe was a reputable publisher, and there is
> > nothing intrinsically irregular about his publication."[1]
> >
> > Contents
> >
> > * 1 Life
> > o 1.1 The Sonnets
> > * 2 Notable published works
> > * 3 Notes
> > * 4 References
>
`````````
> >
Lyra
Lyra wrote:
```````````````````
Here are two references to
Richard Watkins
from this newsgroup's earlier posts.
```````````````````
(quote, excerpts)
In each case the question is of James Roberts and in each of the cases
it is a
work of Shakespeare's: * The Merchant of Venice * in July 1598,
printed over
two years later; * Hamlet * in July 1602, printed by Roberts over two
years
later; * Troilus and Cressida * in February 1603, never printed by
Robert and
first published by others in 1609. At least the two first plays would
have well
sold. Why then was Roberts waiting so long? And above all - one of the
puzzles
of the publication history of Shakespeare's plays - why was a bad
quarto of *
Hamlet * published in 1603 and a good quarto late in 1604 (some of the
quartos
bear the printing year 1605)? The printer of the 1604 quarto was James
Roberts,
```````````````````
Moreover,
Roberts behaved in a way diametrically different from pirating
printers. The
latter were in need for manuscripts to publish as soon as possible
whereas
Roberts was waiting unusually long and did not even print some of the
plays he
entered or tried to enter. He was no needy printer. He owned two
lucrative
privileges, one for the printing of * Prognostications * and *
Almanacs * which
he shared with
Richard Watkins,
one for the printing of the playbills which was
entirely his own. In the following years he entered four more plays of
the
repertory of the Lord Chamberlain's Men and, as seen, tried to enter
four more
in August 1600, a total of 9 plays of which he printed only three
http://groups.google.com/group/humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare/msg/63bb4cc9ad4dd2d9
from the thread
```````````````````
Thorpe was born in 1569 or 1570 which made him 5 or 6 years younger
than both
Shakespeare and Marlowe.
In midsummer 1584 young Thorpe was apprenticed for
nine years to
Richard Watkins
who had a shop at Little Conduit in Cheapside.
Watkins, a respected member of the Stationers' Company, had been a
Warden and
its Master on several occasions.
```````````````````