Richard Hawkins (died 1633) was a

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras. He was a member of the syndicate that published the Second Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays in

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 ...

. His bookshop was in

Chancery Lane Chancery Lane is a one-way street that forms part of the City of London#Boundary, western boundary of the City of London. The east side of the street is entirely within the City,stationer Edmond Matts in 1604–11; in turn he acquired Matts's business in 1613 and established himself as an independent publisher. In his first year, Hawkins reprinted John Marston's ''The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image,'' a work originally issued by Matts in 1598. Hawkins's initial entry into the

Stationers' Register The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. This was a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with England's publishing industry, including prin ...

was Elizabeth Tanfield Cary's '' The Tragedy of Mariam,'' which he also printed in 1613 — a work now recognized as the first tragedy by a woman to be published in English.

Shakespeare

Hawkins's connection with the Shakespeare canon started in

1628 Events January–March * January 19 – (26 Jumada al-Awwal 1037 Islamic calendar, A.H.) The reign of Shahryar Mirza, Salef-ud-din Muhammad Shahryar as the Mughal Emperor, Shahryar Mirza, comes to an end a little more than tw ...

; an entry in the Stationers' Register, dated 1 March that year, records the transfer of the rights to ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

'' from Thomas Walkley, the publisher of the play's first quarto (

1622 Events January–May * January 7 – The Holy Roman Empire and Transylvania sign the Peace of Nikolsburg. * February 8 – King James I of England dissolves the Parliament of England, English Parliament. * March 12 – ...

), to Hawkins. (The same transfer included the rights to the

Beaumont and Fletcher Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather t ...

plays ''Philaster'' and ''

A King and No King ''A King and No King'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher a ...

''.) Hawkins then published the second quarto of ''Othello'' (printed by

Augustine Matthews Augustine Matthews ( fl. 1615 – 1637) was a printer in London in the Jacobean and Caroline eras. Among a wide variety of other work, Matthews printed notable texts in English Renaissance drama. Matthews became a freedman (a full member) ...

) in 1630. Hawkins's text combined elements from the two previous texts, the 1622 first quarto and the

First Folio ''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is cons ...

of 1623, which showed significant differences. Hawkins's possession of the copyright to one Shakespearean play enabled him to become one of the subsidiary members of Robert Allot's syndicate (the others were William Aspley,

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 ...

, and John Smethwick) when Allot published the Second Folio.

Others

Beyond the confines of the Shakespeare canon, Hawkins a published number of other play texts. They included: * the first

quarto Quarto (abbreviated Qto, 4to or 4º) is the format of a book or pamphlet produced from full sheets printed with eight pages of text, four to a side, then folded twice to produce four leaves. The leaves are then trimmed along the folds to produc ...

of Cary's ''The Tragedy of Mariam'' (1613), printed by Thomas Creede; * the third quarto of ''Philaster'' (1628); * the third quarto of Beaumont and Fletcher's ''

The Maid's Tragedy ''The Maid's Tragedy'' is a play by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was first published in 1619. The play has provoked divided responses from critics. Date The play's date of origin is not known with certainty. In 1611, Sir George B ...

'' (1630); * the third quarto of ''A King and No King'' (1631). A fourth quarto of ''Philaster'' was published, under Hawkins's imprint, posthumously in 1634. Like some other publishers of his time, Hawkins sometimes wrote prefaces for the playbooks he issued. In his preface to ''Philaster,'' Hawkins compares the plays of English Renaissance drama to gold, and publishers to "merchant adventurers." Hawkins was one of the small minority who wrote prefatory material in verse, as in his editions of ''A King and No King'' and ''The Maid's Tragedy.'' Hawkins published a range of contemporary literature in his generation, including a

1629 Events January–March * January 7 – Henry Frederick, Hereditary Prince of the Palatinate, the 15-year-old son of the German Palatinate elector, Frederick V of the Palatinate, Frederick V, drowns in an accident while sailing ...

edition of ''

Hero and Leander Hero and Leander (, ) is the Greek myth relating the story of Hero (, ''Hērṓ''; ), a priestess of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology) who dwelt in a tower in Sestos on the European side of the Hellespont, and Leander (, ''Léandros''; ...

'' ( Marlowe's poem with Chapman's continuation), and the 1619 and 1622 editions of the ''Nosce Teipsum'' of the poet

John Davies of Hereford John Davies of Hereford (c. 1565 – July 1618) was a writing-master and an Anglo-Welsh literature, Anglo-Welsh poet. He referred to himself as ''John Davies of Hereford'' (after the city where he was born) in order to distinguish himself from ...

. He ventured into music publishing, with a 1631 edition of the canzonets of

Thomas Morley Thomas Morley (1557 – early October 1602) was an English composer, music theory, theorist, singer and organist of late Renaissance music. He was one of the foremost members of the English Madrigal School. Referring to the strong Italian inf ...

. One of Hawkins's final projects was the first English edition of ''Mathematical Recreations'' (1633), by

Jean Leurechon Jean Leurechon (c. 1591 – 17 January 1670) was a French Jesuit priest, astronomer, and mathematician, known for inventing the pigeonhole principle and naming the thermometer. Life Leurechon was born in Bar-le-Duc where his father, also named ...

(alias "Hendrik van Etten")Trevor Henry Hall, ''Mathematical Recreations: An Exercise in Seventeenth-Century Bibliography,'' Leeds, University of Leeds Press, 1969. — translated by Francis Malthus, and printed by Thomas Cotes, the same man who printed the Second Folio. Hawkins's widow, Ursula Hawkins, disposed of some of his copyrights after his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hawkins, Richard 17th-century English people Publishers (people) from London 1633 deaths Year of birth unknown