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The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. This was a trade guild given a
royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...
in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
's publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers. The company's charter gave it the right to seize illicit editions of published works and to bar the publication of unlicensed books, and allowed publishers to document their right to produce a particular printed work in the register, which thus constituted an early form of
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
law. For the study of English literature of the later 16th and the 17th centuries (covering the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and
Caroline era The Caroline era is the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-year reign of Charles I of England, Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from ''Carolus'', Latin for Charles. The Caroline era followed the Jacobean era, the ...
s), and especially for English Renaissance theatre, the Stationers' Register is a crucial and essential resource: it provides factual information and hard data that is available nowhere else. Together with the records of the
Master of the Revels The Master of the Revels was the holder of a position within the English, and later the British, royal household, heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels". The Master of the Revels was an executive officer under the Lord Chamberla ...
(which relate to dramatic performance rather than publication), the Stationers' Register supplies many of the certain facts scholars possess on the works of
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
,
Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...
, and all of their immediate predecessors, contemporaries, and successors. It is also an invaluable source of information about ephemeral publications, such as popular broadside ballads, of which no printed copies survive. By paying a fee of four to six pence, a bookseller could register his right to publish a given work. One example: the Stationers' Register reveals that on 26 November 1607, the stationers John Busby and Nathaniel Butter claimed the right to print "''A booke called Master William Shakespeare his historye of Kinge Lear, as yt was played before the Kinges maiestie at Whitehall vppon Sainct Stephens night at Christmas Last, by his maiesties servantes playinge vsually at the Globe on the Banksyde.''" (They paid sixpence.) Enforcement of regulations in this historical era was never as thorough as in the modern world; books were sometimes published without registration, and other irregularities also occurred. In some cases, the companies of actors appear to have registered plays through co-operative stationers, with the express purpose of forestalling the publication of a play when publication was not in their interest.''
Much Ado About Nothing ''Much Ado About Nothing'' is a Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.See textual notes to ''Much Ado About Nothing'' in ''The Norton Shakespeare'' (W. W. Norton & Company, 1997 ) p. ...
,'' '' Henry V,'' ''
As You Like It ''As You Like It'' is a pastoral Shakespearean comedy, comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wil ...
,'' and '' Every Man in His Humour'' were registered, apparently for such a purpose ("to be stayed"), on 4 August 1600. Yet if this interpretation is correct, the strategy to forestall publication had limited success; the first two plays were published later in 1600, and the last in 1601. Only ''As You Like It'' remained out of print at the time. Chambers, Vol. 3, p. 359; Halliday, pp. 216, 326.
In 1710, the Copyright Act or
Statute of Anne The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1709 or the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19), was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for ...
entered into force, superseding company provisions pertaining to the Register. The company continued to offer some form of registration of works until February 2000.


References

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Sources

* Arber, Edward, ed
''A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London 1554–1640 A.D.''
5 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1875–94. Reprinted New York, P. Smith, 195

* Edmund Kerchever Chambers, Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. * Eyre, G. E. B., and G. R. Rivington, eds
''A Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers from 1640–1708.''
3 Volumes, London, privately printed, 1913–14. * Greg, W. W., and E. Boswell, eds. ''Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company, 1576 to 1602.'' London, The Bibliographical Society, 1930. * Halliday, F. E. ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. * Jackson, William A., ed. ''Records of the Court of the Stationers' Company 1602 to 1640.'' London, The Bibliographical Society, 1957. * Rollins, H. E
''An Analytical Index to the Ballad-Entries (1557–1709) in the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London.''
University of North Carolina Press, 1924.


External links


"The Stationers' Company: History and Heritage"
(official site of the Stationers' Company in its current incarnation)
"Stationers' Register Online"
(searchable database of entries based on Arber's edition, corrected against the original manuscripts) Bibliography English Renaissance plays Mass media in the United Kingdom