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Terms of use

The British Library has graciously contributed the images to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Public Domain Mark.

Copyright status of the manuscript and unpublished Materials: The 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (as amended) states that unpublished literary and artistic works remain in copyright in the UK until at least 31 December 2039. Therefore important parts of the library’s collection remain in copyright, including very old manuscripts. However for unpublished material created many centuries ago and in the public domain in most other countries, the Library believes this material to be very unlikely to offend anyone. As an institution whose role it is to support access to knowledge, we have therefore taken the decision to release certain digitised images technically still in copyright in the UK under the Public Domain Mark.

Documents contributed by The British Library

1609- 1610
The poet and courtier Sir John Harington left behind tantalizing lists of plays written by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, Thomas Heywood, and others. Around 1609 he compiled two lists of play quartos almost certainly in his personal collection.
April 30, 1610
During a diplomatic visit to England in 1610, the Protestant German prince Louis Frederick Würtemberg attended a performance of Othello--“l’histoire du More de Venise”--at the Globe.
imprinted as 1602, i.e. 1610
The tenth edition of Venus and Adonis, like the eighth and ninth, bears an imprint claiming the book was printed for William Leake in 1602; however, it seems that it was not printed for Leake until 1610.
1611
This book is the only surviving play manuscript used by Shakespeare’s company, the King’s Men. It is also the only surviving copy of the play itself, which became known as The Second Maiden’s Tragedy.
1611
This is the only surviving copy of The Anuals of great Brittaine, a 1611 reissue of Robert Chester’s 1601 Loves Martyr, which included the Shakespeare poem now known as “The Phoenix and the Turtle.” The Anuals is made up of sheets from the 1601 edition

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