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regulated: controlled
copyright: the exclusive rights to a literary, artistic, or musical work
acTiViTY 1.3
continued
My notes
Why isn’t much known about Shakespeare’s life?
Who was William Shakespeare?
Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, in 1564. Very little
is known about his life, but by 1592 he was in London working as an actor and a dramatist. Between about 1590 and 1613, Shakespeare wrote at least 37 plays and collaborated on several more. Many of these plays were very successful both at court and in the public playhouses. In 1613, Shakespeare retired from the theatre and returned to Stratford-upon-Avon. He died and was buried there in 1616.
What did he write?
1 Shakespeare wrote plays and poems. His plays were comedies, histories and tragedies. His 17 comedies include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and
The Merry Wives of Windsor. Among his 10 history plays are Henry V and
Richard III. The most famous among his 10 tragedies are Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear. Shakespeare’s best-known poems are The Sonnets, first published in 1609.
What are the quartos?
Shakespeare’s plays began to be printed in 1594, probably with his tragedy Titus Andronicus. This appeared as a small, cheap pamphlet called a quarto because of the way it was printed. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had appeared in quarto editions by the time of his death in 1616. Another three plays were printed in quarto before 1642. In 1623 an expensive folio volume of 36 plays by Shakespeare was printed, which included most of those printed in quarto.
Why are the quartos important?
None of Shakespeare’s manuscripts survives, so the printed texts of his plays are our only source for what he originally wrote. The quarto editions are the texts closest to Shakespeare’s time. Some are thought to preserve either his working drafts (his foul papers) or his fair copies. Others are thought to record versions remembered by actors who performed the plays, providing information about staging practices in Shakespeare’s day.
Shakespeare in print
By the time Shakespeare began creating his plays, the London book trade was well established and growing steadily. Printing was regulated by the ecclesiastical authorities and the Stationers’ Company, although the regulations were not always enforced. The printers, booksellers, and publishers who ran London’s book trade were almost all stationers.
Printed plays formed a very small part of the book trade. Relatively few plays got into print. They did not sell in large numbers, and were not particularly profitable.
The companies of players were not necessarily reluctant to have their plays printed, but the uncertainty of profits may well have deterred publishers. The dramatists themselves were unlikely to make money from the printing of their plays. There was no law of copyright to protect their interests. Once a manuscript play
had been sold to a publisher, and he had paid for its approval and licensing for printing, he had sole rights over the work.
interpret the Text Using close Reading
138 SpringBoard® English Language Development Grade 6
Several of Shakespeare’s plays, including Richard II and Richard III, were popular enough to be printed in several editions. From 1598, with Love’s Labour’s Lost, his name began to be added to their title-pages as a selling point. Scholars
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