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William Leake, father (died 1633) and son (died 1681), were London publishers and booksellers of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. They were responsible for a range of texts in English Renaissance drama and poetry, including works by Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher.
William Leake I, or William Leake the elder, started in business as a bookseller around 1586. His shops were at the sign of the Greyhound in Paternoster Row, and at the sign of the Holy Ghost in St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1596 he acquired the rights to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis from John Harrison the elder, and published six editions of that very popular poem from 1599 to 1602 in literature (the fifth through tenth editions, or the third octavo edition, O3, through the eighth, O8). [1]
The elder Leake published the first quartos of Anthony Munday's two plays about Robin Hood, The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington (both 1601). Leake published editions of John Lyly's Euphues the tenth edition (both parts) in 1605, the eleventh in 1607, the twelfth in 1607 (Part I) and 1609 (Part II), and the thirteenth in 1613. He issued Robert Southwell's Saint Peter's Complaint and Other Poems in 1595, and Thomas Greene's A Poet's Vision, and a Prince's Glory in 1603.
Leake also was responsible for volumes in a range of subjects apart from drama and literature. He published the religious books that were so common in his era — Henry Smith's The Sinner's Confession (1594) and William Fulke's A Most Pleasant Prospect into the Garden of Natural Contemplation (1602) are two examples. And he published the kind of romances of chivalry that were the great bestsellers of the age, like The Knight of the Sea (1600) and The Third and Last Part of Palmerin of England (1602).
William Leake the elder was selected as Master of the Stationers Company in 1618. He retired from business after his term as master of his guild was completed.
William Leake II, or the younger, became a "freedman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company on 22 June 1623. The gap between his father's career as his own means that the younger Leake did not inherit an established business from his parent — though his father did leave him £600 and the family plate in his last will and testament. The younger Leake set himself up as an independent bookseller by 1635. His shop was located as the sign of the Crown in Fleet Street, and later in Chancery Lane. On 1 June 1635 the Widow Leake transferred her late husband's copyrights to William II. In 1638 he obtained control of the copyrights of the late Richard Hawkins — and both of these consignments of rights contained play texts. [2] This sparked the most active period of publishing across both of the Leake generations. [3]
Even though the works of Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher had been published in large folio collections by the middle of the seventeenth century (the Shakespeare First Folio in 1623 and the Second Folio in 1632; the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio in 1647), publishers continued to issue editions of individual plays when they judged there was a market for them. William Leake the younger issued several of these later editions:
Leake also reprinted James Shirley's The Grateful Servant (1637) and The Wedding (1660), as well as multiple editions of Hero and Leander that included both Marlowe's original and Chapman's continuation (1637 and after).
Leake published first editions as well as reprints. In 1640 he issued John Gough's tragicomedy The Strange Discovery, and Christ's Passion, George Sandys's translation of a tragedy by Hugo Grotius.
And like his father (indeed like most publishers of his period), the younger Leake also published a variety of other types of books, including popular literature like The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes (sixth and subsequent editions, 1639 and after) and Le Prince D'Amour (1660), and serious works like Sir Thomas Urchard's Epigrams Divine and Moral (1646) and John Wilson's translation of The Praise of Folly of Eramus (1668). Leake the younger was also believed to be a friend of the Cotton Library during its direction under Sir Thomas Cotton, publishing such constitutional works as An Exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower of London (1657) collated by politician William Prynne. [4]
William Leake the younger was followed in his business by his son John Leake.
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.
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.
False Folio is the term that Shakespeare scholars and bibliographers have applied to William Jaggard's printing of ten Shakespearean and pseudo-Shakespearean plays together in 1619, the first attempt to collect Shakespeare's work in a single volume. There are only two complete extant copies. One is part of the collection of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. The other is held in the Special Collections at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
William Jaggard was an Elizabethan and Jacobean printer and publisher, best known for his connection with the texts of William Shakespeare, most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays. Jaggard's shop was "at the sign of the Half-Eagle and Key in Barbican."
Ben Jonson collected his plays and other writings into a book he titled The Workes of Benjamin Jonson. In 1616 it was printed in London in the form of a folio. Second and third editions of his works were published posthumously in 1640 and 1692.
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.
The Elder Brother is an early seventeenth-century English stage play, a comedy written by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. Apparently dating from 1625, it may have been the last play Fletcher worked on before his August 1625 death.
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to 1617. Creede is best known for printing editions of works in English Renaissance drama, especially for ten editions of six Shakespearean plays and three works in the Shakespeare Apocrypha.
John Smethwick was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. Along with colleague William Aspley, Smethwick was one of the "junior partners" in the publishing syndicate that issued the First Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays in 1623. As his title pages specify, his shop was "in St. Dunstan's Churchyard in Fleet Street, under the Dial."
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 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 Crooke and William Cooke 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 Shirley.
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.
John Waterson 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.
Thomas Pavier was a London publisher and bookseller of the early seventeenth century. His complex involvement in the publication of early editions of some of Shakespeare's plays, as well as plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, has left him with a "dubious reputation."
Humphrey Robinson was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century.
John Marriot and his son Richard Marriot were prominent London publishers and booksellers in the seventeenth century. For a portion of their careers, the 1645–57 period, they were partners in a family business.
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 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.
Thomas Heyes was the publisher-bookseller who published the first quarto edition of William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in London, in 1600. He traded from 'St Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of the Green Dragon’.
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