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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 C
Date: 1595-1620
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber C, fol. 214v
Folger Shakespeare Library Staff, "Stationers' Register entry for the transfer of Thomas Lord Cromwell in 1611," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/429.
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Liber C, folio 214 verso. See Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/429.
Thomas Lord Cromwell was originally entered into Liber C of the Stationers' Company on August 11, 1602 by the printer William Cotton for the publisher William Jones. On December 16, 1611, an entry in Liber C transfers the rights to publish the play from William Jones to John Browne, although no entry exists showing the transfer of Cotton's rights to Jones. The play is entered under the title "the lyfe and death of the Lord Cromwell". This entry, like the entry in 1602, attributes authorship to a mysterious "W.S." Many attributed the play to Shakespeare based on these initials, and it appears in the Third and Fourth Folios. However, based on linguistic analysis, this attribution, long doubted, has been proven incorrect. Jones published the first quarto edition in 1602. The second quarto edition was printed in 1613 by Thomas Snodham. No further quarto editions were produced.
Liber C 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]
1611 9no. Regis.
16to Decembris
John Browne Entred for his copyes by assignement
from Wm Jones and vnder master warden
Lownes his hande, one booke called
the Arte of Payntinge, drawinge, &
lymninge, donne by Henry Pecham
Mr of Artes, and none other booke
G*S called, the lyfe and death of the Lo:
Cromwell, by W : S . . . . .xijd /.
24to Decembris
Thomas Snodham Entred for his Copy vnder the handes of my
Lord Bysshopp of London & Th’wardens,
A booke called, The golden Legend of ye
Romishe churche examyned by the touche
stone of truthe, written in Dutche by
Symbon Raytinck to be printed both
in Dutche and Englishe . . . . .vjd.
26to Decembris
Martin Clerke. Entred for his Copy vnder the handes of
my Lord Bysshopp of Bathe and
Wells & of the wardens, A booke to
be translated out of ffrenche into
English and so printed called in ffrenche
Le Doit des Roiss contre le
cardinall Bellarmyn et Authres
Jessuites Dedie au Roy &c. Pat
Monsieur J. Bede &c. pro Christo
et Ludovico XIIJo . . . . .vjd.
7mo Januarij 1611.
Tho: Archer. Entred for his Copy vnder the handes of Mr
Mason & Mr warden Lownes A booke
called The arraynmente & conviction of
John Sellman &c . . . . .vjd ./
Nath:l Butter Entred for his Copy vnder th’andes of
Mr doctor Mokett & The wardens, A booke
called, Just & necessary motyves of
N. N. for his free and voluntary
& conuersion from the Bysshopp of Rome
his Churche to the Christian and
Apostolique Churche of England
prouided that the sheetes be severally
broughte to Mr Doctor Mokett to viewe
as they are printed . . . . .vjd ./
John Eoyston Entred for their Copy vnder the handes of Mr Wm
Wm Bladon Peirce & The wardens, A booke to be printed
when it is further Authorised, called Neues
out of Germany or the surprisinge of the
Citty of Prage by the Archduke
Leopold and what there passed in ffebruary and
marche laste &c. translated out of ye ffrench
copy. printed at Parys 1611. . . . .vjd ./
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), 3:474.
DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "Thomas, Lord Cromwell," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu.
Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "1290. Thomas, Lord Cromwell," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 4, 1598-1602 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 302-7.
Last updated February 8, 2020