Philip Chetwinde (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1653–1674) was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the

Third Folio The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually a ...

Shakespeare's 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 natio ...

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. Background and conception The major partner ...

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 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 ...

. 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 The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery company, livery companies of the City of London. 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 Mughal ...

, 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 8 – University of Amsterdam is established at the site of the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam. * January 31 – The dissection of a body for the benefit of medical students is carried o ...

. 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 Events January–March * January 5 – Battle of Surat in India: The Maratha leader, Chhatrapati Shivaji, defeats the Mughal Army Captain Inayat Khan, and sacks Surat. * January 7 – Indian entrepreneur Virji Vora, desc ...

, 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 London Prodigal'' is an English Renaissance play, most notable for its inclusion among the Shakespeare apocrypha. A city comedy set in London, it tells the story of a prodigal son learning the error of his ways. It was published 1605 ...

The Puritan ''The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street'', also known as ''The Puritan Widow'', is an anonymous Jacobean stage comedy, first published in 1607. It is often attributed to Thomas Middleton, but also belongs to the Shakespeare Apocrypha ...

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 ...

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 Cott ...

,'' ''

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 languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

. 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 merchants