Liber B, folio 310 verso
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The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1605
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 310v
Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.
Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1605
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 310v
Folger Shakespeare Library Staff, "Stationers' Register entry for Locrine," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/391.
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Liber B, folio 310 verso. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/391.
The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus was entered into Stationers' Liber B by Thomas Creede on July 20, 1594 as "The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine, the eldest sonne of Kinge Brutus. discoursinge the warres of the Brittans &c." Creede, a printer in London, printed the first quarto edition of Locrine sometime between November 1595 and March 1596. Locrine is part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha due to the fact the title page bears the line "Newly set foorth, ouerseene and corrected, By W.S."
As Shakespeare's name had not appeared on any title pages of his works at this time, however, these initials would not have immediately implied his authorship to an Elizabethan audience. Martin Wiggins, in his monograph British Drama 1533-1642: a Catalogue, notes that "Sir George Buc, who liked to identify the authors of plays which had been published anonymously, and who knew Shakespeare personally, made no mention of him when he annotated the title page of his copy." Donna N. Murphy investigated the theory of Robert Greene as author in her 2009 article "Locrine, Selimus, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge." Regardless of authorship, Locrine has earned itself a firm place within the Shakespeare Apocrypha, as it was included in both the second and third Folios, printed in 1664 and 1685.
Liber B and the other registers with Shakespeare’s works are still kept by the Stationers’ Company in their archives.
[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[Current transcription based on Arber; check back soon for a transcription that conforms to Shakespeare Documented conventions]
Mr Watkins Mr
Mr Cawood } Wardens
Mr Binge
1594 36 Eliz
15 Julij
Jo. Legat Entred for his copie, a book
entituled. Compendium librorum phisicorum
Aristotelis, Conscriptum a Jo. Ludovico
Hauneurentes Doctore medico, et philosopho . . . vjd
Intratur in Curia tenta hoc die /
xxo die Julij
Tho. Creede Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of
the Wardens. The lamentable
Tragedie of Locrine, the eldest
sonne of Kinge Brutus. discoursinge
the warres of the Brittans &c . . . . vjd
Secundo die Augusti./.
John Danter./. Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of bothe
the wardens a ballad intituled a call
to Repentance to all true Englishe hartes . . . . vjd
John Danter./. Entred alsoe for his Copie vnder the handes
of bothe the wardens an other ballad
entituled Bellin Duns Confession &c . . . . vjd
John wolf Entred for his copie / vnder both the
wardens handes, the Articles of the
gyveinge over of Gronig. &c . . . . vjd
viijo Augusti
Peter Shorte / Entred for his copie vnder the handes of bothe
the wardens, a booke intituled / The
Jewell house of Art and Nature
Conteyninge sundrie rare and profitable
inventions that have hitherto lyen hid in the
bosom of nature, together with sundrie
newe and approved experimentes for
the inrichinge of barren groundes / as alsoe
the newe arte of mouldinge and castinge
of any naturall or artificiall patron
into gold siluer &c written by Hughe
Platt of Lymcolnes Inne gent / . . . . vjd
John danter. Entred for his copie vnder the handes of the
wardens, a ballad intituled / howe a
blacksmith vsed the rich farmers of
Denmark for raisinge their corne . . . . vjd
Sources
Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London: 1554–1640 A.D. 5 vols. (London: privately printed, 1875–94), 2:656.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "Locrine," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "885. Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 3, 1590-1597 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 86-90.
Last updated July 13, 2020
