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Liber B
July 20,
1594

Liber B, folio 310 verso

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Liber B, folio 310 verso
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Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.

Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1605
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 310v

Item Creator
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Item Title
Liber B
Item Date
1576-1605
Repository
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call Number
Liber B, folio 310 verso

Institution Rights and Document Citation

Terms of use
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers has graciously contributed the above image from their collections to Shakespeare Documented under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. For any further use, visitors should contact the Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers at clerk@stationers.org.

Document-specific information
Creator: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
Title: Liber B
Date: 1576-1605
Repository: Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, London, UK
Call number and opening: Liber B, fol. 310v

Folger Shakespeare Library Staff, "Stationers' Register entry for Locrine," Shakespeare Documented, https://doi.org/10.37078/391.

The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers, Liber B, folio 310 verso. See Shakespeare Documentedhttps://doi.org/10.37078/391.

The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus was entered into Stationers' Liber B  by Thomas Creede on July 20, 1594 as "The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine, the eldest sonne of Kinge Brutus. discoursinge the warres of the Brittans &c." Creede, a printer in London, printed the first quarto edition of Locrine sometime between November 1595 and March 1596. Locrine is part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha due to the fact the title page bears the line "Newly set foorth, ouerseene and corrected, By W.S."

As Shakespeare's name had not appeared on any title pages of his works at this time, however, these initials would not have immediately implied his authorship to an Elizabethan audience. Martin Wiggins, in his monograph British Drama 1533-1642: a Catalogue, notes that "Sir George Buc, who liked to identify the authors of plays which had been published anonymously, and who knew Shakespeare personally, made no mention of him when he annotated the title page of his copy." Donna N. Murphy investigated the theory of Robert Greene as author in her 2009 article "Locrine, Selimus, Robert Greene, and Thomas Lodge." Regardless of authorship, Locrine has earned itself a firm place within the Shakespeare Apocrypha, as it was included in both the second and third Folios, printed in 1664 and 1685.

Liber B and the other registers with Shakespeare’s works are still kept by the Stationers’ Company in their archives.
 

Semi-diplomatic transcription

[This transcription is pending final vetting]
[Current transcription based on Arber; check back soon for a transcription that conforms to Shakespeare Documented conventions]    

Mr Watkins Mr 
Mr Cawood } Wardens
Mr Binge
                                                1594 36 Eliz

                                       15 Julij
Jo. Legat          Entred for his copie, a book
                         entituled. Compendium librorum phisicorum
                         Aristotelis, Conscriptum a Jo. Ludovico
                         Hauneurentes Doctore medico, et philosopho   .       .       .     vjd
                             
Intratur in Curia tenta hoc die /

                                       xxo die Julij
Tho. Creede      Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of
                          the Wardens. The lamentable
                          Tragedie of Locrine, the eldest
                          sonne of Kinge Brutus. discoursinge
                          the warres of the Brittans &c     .       .       .        .     vjd

                                       Secundo die Augusti./. 
John Danter./.    Entred for his Copie vnder the handes of bothe
                          the wardens a ballad intituled a call
                          to Repentance to all true Englishe hartes     .       .       .        .     vjd  
 
John Danter./.    Entred alsoe for his Copie vnder the handes
                          of bothe the wardens an other ballad
                          entituled Bellin Duns Confession &c     .       .       .        .     vjd

John wolf          Entred for his copie / vnder both the
                          wardens handes, the Articles of the 
                          gyveinge over of Gronig. &c     .       .       .        .     vjd

                                       viijo Augusti
Peter Shorte /     Entred for his copie vnder the handes of bothe
                           the wardens, a booke intituled / The
                           Jewell house of Art and Nature 
                           Conteyninge sundrie rare and profitable
                           inventions that have hitherto lyen hid in the
                           bosom of nature, together with sundrie
                           newe and approved experimentes for
                           the inrichinge of barren groundes / as alsoe
                           the newe arte of mouldinge and castinge
                           of any naturall or artificiall patron
                           into gold siluer &c written by Hughe
                           Platt of Lymcolnes Inne gent /     .       .       .        .     vjd 

John danter.       Entred for his copie vnder the handes of the
                          wardens, a ballad intituled / howe a
                          blacksmith vsed the rich farmers of
                          Denmark for raisinge their corne    .       .       .        .     vjd 

Sources
Edward Arber, ed., A Transcript of the Registers of the Company of Stationers of London: 1554–1640 A.D. 5 vols. (London: privately printed, 1875–94), 2:656.

DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks, "Locrine," Ed. Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser. Created 2007. Accessed 15 January 2016. http://deep.sas.upenn.edu

Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, "885. Locrine, the Eldest Son of King Brutus," in British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Vol. 3, 1590-1597 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 86-90.

Last updated July 13, 2020