John Waterson

Last updated

John Waterson (died 10 February 1656) was a London publisher and bookseller of the Jacobean and Caroline eras; he published significant works in English Renaissance drama, including plays by William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, John Webster, and Philip Massinger.

Contents

Beginning

Waterson was the scion of a family of publishers: his grandfather Richard and his father Simon were both in the book trade. Simon Waterson (1585–1634) was also the brother-in-law of William Ponsonby, the prominent publisher of Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney; when Ponsonby died in 1604, Simon acquired many of Ponsonby's copyrights.

John Waterson became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company on 27 June 1620, and soon after was an active independent publisher. He took over the management of his father's shop, at the sign of the Crown at Cheap Gate in St. Paul's Churchyard. (Simon Waterson is thought to have gone into semi-retirement when his son took over, though his name appeared on published books until his death.) The younger Waterson continued to publish some of his father's works; Simon Waterson issued the first four editions of William Camden's Remains of a Greater Work Concerning Britain (1605, 1614, 1623, 1629), and John printed the fifth and sixth editions (1636, 1637). [1] Simon published the first edition of an anonymous English translation of Guarini's Il Pastor Fido (1602), and John published the second edition (1633). [2]

One of John Waterson's earliest publications was also one of his most notable: the first quarto of Webster's The Duchess of Malfi (1623), printed by Nicholas Okes. [3]

Maturity

John Waterson also published a noteworthy and problematic entry in the Shakespeare canon: The Two Noble Kinsmen (1634), printed by Thomas Cotes. [4] The title page of the quarto attributes the play to Shakespeare and Fletcher, an attribution that inspired three centuries of controversy before its general acceptance in the modern era.

Other first editions of plays published by Waterson include:

(Waterson maintained a close professional relationship with printer Thomas Harper; they worked together on many projects, including the Camden editions noted above.)

Waterson also had a connection with Ben Jonson; he entered Jonson's play The Staple of News into the Stationers' Register on 14 April 1626. For unknown reasons, the play was not published at that time, and Waterson transferred his copyright to Robert Allot on 7 September 1631.

Waterson published works beyond the confines of drama; he issued poetry, with volumes that included:

And Waterson produced the normal range of miscellaneous books typical of stationers in his era, including religious works like Anthony Stafford's The Female Glory, or the Life and Death of the Holy Virgin Mary (1635), and popular fiction like The Tragedy of Alceste and Eliza (1638) — both printed by Harper.

End

Waterson apparently retired from business after 1641. In October 1646 he transferred his copyrights to The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Elder Brother, and Monsieur Thomas to Humphrey Moseley. The shop at the sign of the Crown passed to stationer John Williams; John Waterson's son, another Simon Waterson, served his apprenticeship under Williams in the 1640s. This younger Simon Waterson was active in the book trade in the middle 1650s, doing business at the sign of the Globe in Paul's Churchyard. [5]

Related Research Articles

Early texts of Shakespeares works late 16th and early 17th-century editions of William Shakespeares works

The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually abbreviated to Q1, Q2, etc., where the letter stands for "quarto" and the number for the first, second, or third edition published.

<i>The Two Noble Kinsmen</i> Play partly written by William Shakespeare

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy, first published in 1634 and attributed jointly to John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. Its plot derives from "The Knight's Tale" in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which had already been dramatised at least twice before. This play is believed to have been William Shakespeare's final play before he retired to Stratford-Upon-Avon and died three years later.

Rollo Duke of Normandy, also known as The Bloody Brother, is a play written in collaboration by John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Ben Jonson and George Chapman. The title character is the historical Viking duke of Normandy, Rollo. Scholars have disputed almost everything about the play; but it was probably written sometime in the 1612–24 era and later revised, perhaps in 1630 or after. In addition to the four writers cited above, the names of Nathan Field and Robert Daborne have been connected with the play by individual scholars.

John Benson (publisher)

John Benson was a London publisher of the middle seventeenth century, best remembered for a historically important publication of the Sonnets and miscellaneous poems of William Shakespeare in 1640.

The Beaumont and Fletcher folios are two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.

Henry Herringman (1628–1704) was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publisher of the works of John Dryden. He conducted his business under the sign of the Blue Anchor in the lower walk of the New Exchange.

Robert Allot was a London bookseller and publisher of the early Caroline era; his shop was at the sign of the black bear in St. Paul's Churchyard. Though he was in business for a relatively short time – the decade from 1625 to 1635 – Allot had significant connections with the dramatic canons of the two greatest figures of English Renaissance theatre, William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

William Ponsonby (publisher)

William Ponsonby was a prominent London publisher of the Elizabethan era. Active in the 1577–1603 period, Ponsonby published the works of Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and other members of the Sidney circle; he has been called "the leading literary publisher of Elizabethan times."

Peter Short was a London printer of the later Elizabethan era. He printed several first editions and early texts of Shakespeare's works.

William Aspley 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.

Thomas Cotes was a London printer of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, best remembered for printing the Second Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1632.

Richard Meighen was a London publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He is noted for his publications of plays of English Renaissance drama; he published the second Ben Jonson folio of 1640/1, and was a member of the syndicate that issued the Second Folio of Shakespeare's collected plays in 1632.

Richard Hawkins was a London publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He was a member of the syndicate that published the Second Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays in 1632. His bookshop was in Chancery Lane, near Sergeant's Inn.

Andrew Wise, or Wyse or Wythes, was a London publisher of the Elizabethan era who issued first editions of five Shakespearean plays. "No other London stationer invested in Shakespeare as assiduously as Wise did, at least while Shakespeare was still alive."

George Eld was a London printer of the Jacobean era, who produced important works of English Renaissance drama and literature, including key texts by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and Thomas Middleton.

Nathaniel Butter was a London publisher of the early 17th century. The publisher of the first edition of Shakespeare's King Lear in 1608, he has also been regarded as one of the first publishers of a newspaper in English.

Nicholas Okes was an English printer in London of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, remembered for printing works of English Renaissance drama. He was responsible for early editions of works by many of the playwrights of the period, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Dekker, Thomas Heywood, James Shirley, and John Ford.

Edward Allde was an English printer in London during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He was responsible for a number of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, including some of the early editions of plays by William Shakespeare.

Thomas Walkley was a London publisher and bookseller in the early and middle seventeenth century. He is noted for publishing a range of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, "and much other interesting literature."

Augustine Matthews

Augustine Matthews was a printer in London in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. Among a wide variety of other work, Matthews printed notable texts in English Renaissance drama.

References

  1. ↑ Daly, Peter Maurice, Leslie T, Duer, and Anthony Raspa, eds.The English Emblem Tradition. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1988; p. 7.
  2. ↑ Chambers, E. K. The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 4, pp. 40–1.
  3. ↑ Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 510.
  4. ↑ Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 226.
  5. ↑ Plomer, Henry Robert. A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers Who Were at Work in England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. London, The Bibliographical Society/Blades, East & Blades, 1907; p. 189.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.