Philip Chetwinde ( fl. 1653–1674) was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's plays.

A rough start

Chetwinde was originally a clothworker. Through his 1637 marriage to Mary Allot, the widow of

Second Folio The Second Folio is the 1632 edition of the collected plays of William Shakespeare. It follows the First Folio of 1623. Much language was updated in the Second Folio and there are almost 1,700 changes. The major partners in the First Folio had ...

publisher

Robert Allot Robert Allot (died 1635) was a London bookseller and publisher of the early Caroline era; his shop was at the sign of the black bear in St. Paul's Churchyard. Though he was in business for a relatively short time – the decade from 1625 to 16 ...

, Chetwinde acquired rights to Allot's published works – which included the rights to a substantial portion of the dramatic output of both Shakespeare and

Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...

. Chetwinde attempted to move into the publishing business after his marriage; but he faced opposition from the established booksellers and publishers, since he had not risen through the apprentice system of the Stationers Company. Chetwinde used his rights to Jonson's works in the publication of the Second Jonson folio of 1640–1, though that volume's publisher of record was

Richard Meighen Richard Meighen (died 1641) was a London publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He is noted for his publications of plays of English Renaissance drama; he published the second Ben Jonson folio of 1640/41, and was a member of the syndicat ...

. It was not until 1653 that Chetwinde was able to operate fully as a stationer.

Shakespeare

1663 Events January–March * January 10 – The Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter by Charles II of England. * January 23 – The Treaty of Ghilajharighat is signed in India between representatives of the Mugha ...

, he employed his rights to Shakespeare's plays to publish the Third Folio, a corrected reprint of the Second Folio of

1632 Events January–March * January – The Holland's Leaguer (brothel), Holland's Leguer, a brothel in London, is closed after having been besieged for a month. * February 22 – Galileo Galilei, Galileo's ''Dialogue Conce ...

. The Third Folio was printed by Alice Warren, Roger Daniel, and either Thomas Ratcliffe or John Hayes.Andrew Murphy, ''Shakespeare in Print: A History and Chronology of Shakespeare Publishing,'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003; p. 53. (In the seventeenth century and earlier, the functions of printers and publishers were largely hough not absolutelyseparate; booksellers chose works to publish and commissioned printers to print them.) In the following year,

1664 It is one of eight years (CE) to contain each Roman numeral exactly once (1000(M)+500(D)+100(C)+50(L)+10(X)+(-1(I)+5(V)) = 1664). Events January–March * January 5 – In the Battle of Surat in India, the Maratha leader, Chhat ...

, Chetwinde issued a second impression of the Third Folio, to which he added seven plays: ''

Locrine ''Locrine'' is an Elizabethan play depicting the legendary Trojan founders of the nation of England and of Troynovant (London). The play presents a cluster of complex and unresolved problems for scholars of English Renaissance theatre. Date '' ...

, The London Prodigal,

The Puritan ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

Sir John Oldcastle ''Sir John Oldcastle'' is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-/15th-century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. Publication The play was originally p ...

Thomas Lord Cromwell ''Thomas Lord Cromwell'' is an Elizabethan history play, depicting the life of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, the minister of King Henry VIII of England. The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on 11 August 1602 by William Cot ...

,'' ''

A Yorkshire Tragedy ''A Yorkshire Tragedy'' is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleto ...

,'' and ''

Pericles, Prince of Tyre ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'' is a Jacobean play written at least in part by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected works despite questions over its authorship, as it was not included in the First Folio. It was p ...

.'' Only the last of these, ''Pericles,'' is accepted by the modern critical consensus as, even in part, authentically Shakespearean in authorship; the other six are part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha.

Career

Like virtually all the publishers of his time and place, Chetwinde produced an abundant supply of religious works; Bishop Bayly's ''The Practice of Piety'', which Chetwinde issued in multiple editions, is only one example. Chetwinde was unusual among London publishers of his generation in that he published books in the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language of the Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has ...

. It can be noted that Chetwinde worked, with some frequency, with female printers – the widows of printers who had continued their late husbands' businesses. Alice Warren, as noted, worked on the Third Folio; some of Chetwinde's Welsh-language books were printed by Ellen Cotes and Sarah Griffin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chetwinde, Philip Publishers (people) from London 17th-century English businesspeople