Thomas Creede
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Thomas Creede (
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 ...
1593 – 1617) was a printer of the
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The Roman symbol of Britannia (a female per ...
and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in
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 ...
, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to 1617. Creede is best known for printing editions of works in English Renaissance drama, especially for ten editions of six
Shakespearean 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 nation ...
plays and three works in the Shakespeare Apocrypha.


Printing

In Creede's era, the disciplines of printing and publishing were generally conducted separately. Books were published by stationers or booksellers, who subcontracted the job of printing to professional printers. Those individuals, like
William Jaggard William Jaggard ( – November 1623) was an Elizabethan era, Elizabethan and Jacobean era, Jacobean printer and publisher, best known for his connection with the texts of William Shakespeare, most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's pl ...
of
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 ...
fame, who regularly functioned as both publishers and printers, were the exceptions to the general rule. Much of Creede's most noteworthy work, as with Shakespearean texts, followed this model – he worked as a printer hired by booksellers; yet Creede did a not-insignificant amount of publishing too (see below). For the bookseller Thomas Millington, Creede printed: * '' Henry VI, Part 2,'' Q1, 1594 For Andrew Wise, Creede printed: * ''
Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...
,'' Q2, 1598 * ''Richard III,'' Q3, 1602 For Matthew Law (who acquired the rights to ''Richard III'' from Wise in 1603), Creede printed: * ''Richard III,'' Q4, 1605 * ''Richard III,'' Q5, 1612 For Cuthbert Burby, Creede printed: * ''
Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...
,'' 1599 (the "good" quarto, as opposed to the "bad" Q1 of 1597) For Thomas Millington and John Busby, Creede printed: * '' Henry V,'' Q1, 1600 (a "
bad quarto A bad quarto, in Shakespearean scholarship, is a quarto-sized printed edition of one of Shakespeare's plays that is considered to be unauthorised, and is theorised to have been pirated from a theatrical performance without permission by someone ...
") For Thomas Pavier (who acquired the rights to ''Henry V'' later in 1600), Creede printed: * ''Henry V,'' Q2, 1602 (another "bad quarto") For Arthur Johnson, Creede printed: * ''
The Merry Wives of Windsor ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' or ''Sir John Falstaff and the Merry Wives of Windsor'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare first published in 1602, though believed to have been written in or before 1597. The Windsor of the play's title is a ref ...
,'' Q1 1602 (yet another "bad quarto") For Henry Gosson, Creede, along with fellow printer William White, printed: * ''
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 ...
,'' Q1, 1609 For Nathaniel Butter, Creede printed the sole
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: * '' The London Prodigal,'' Q, 1605, one of the plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha; assigned on the title page to "William Shakespeare" And for Arthur Johnson, Creede printed: * '' The Merry Devil of Edmonton,'' Q2, 1612; another Apocryphal play. Creede was responsible for a number of play texts beyond the confines of Shakespeariana. He printed the sole quartos of the anonymous plays '' The Maid's Metamorphosis'' and '' The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll,'' both for Richard Olive, in 1600; he printed the first quartos of
George Chapman George Chapman ( – 12 May 1634) was an English dramatist, translator and poet. He was a classical scholar whose work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman is seen as an anticipator of the metaphysical poets of the 17th century. He is ...
's '' Monsieur D'Olive'' for William Holmes (1606), and
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 ...
's '' Cupid's Revenge'' and Wentworth Smith's ''Hector of Germany,'' both for Josias Harrison (both 1615), and the second quarto of
John Lyly John Lyly (; also spelled ''Lilly'', ''Lylie'', ''Lylly''; born c. 1553/54 – buried 30 November 1606)Hunter, G. K. (2004)"Lyly, John (1554–1606)". ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 23 January 2 ...
's '' Mother Bombie'' for Cuthbert Burby (1598). For Richard Hawkins, Creede printed '' The Tragedy of Mariam'' (1613) by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, the first original tragedy by a woman author published in English. And for Richard Olive, Creede printed one of the more significant non-dramatic texts of English Renaissance drama, the 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene known as '' Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit'', which contains the earliest citation of Shakespeare in a theatrical context yet discovered. For Thomas Bushell, Creede printed the '' Microcynicon'' of
Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
(1599), which was suppressed by the
Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the Primus inter pares, ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the diocese of Canterbury. The first archbishop ...
. Inevitably, Creede also worked on many non-dramatic projects, some of serious merit; in 1597 he printed the fifth edition of Spenser's '' The Shepherd's Calendar'' for John Harrison the Younger. Equally inevitably, he printed works of ephemeral interest, now forgotten. For Thomas Woodcocke, for instance, Creede printed John Dickenson's ''Arisbas: Euphues Amidst His Slumbers, or Cupid's Journey to Hell'' in 1594. Creede printed many of the prose romances of chivalry that were immensely popular in his era. Working in another instance for Richard Olive, he printed Emanuel Ford's ''Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia'' (1598). It must have been a success: nine years later Creede would both print and publish another of Ford's novels, ''The Most Pleasant History of Ornatus and Artesia'' (
1607 Events January–March * January 13 – The Bank of Genoa fails. * January 19 – San Agustin Church, Manila, is officially completed; by the 21st century it will be the oldest church in the Philippines. * January 30 – ...
). For Cuthbert Burby, Creede printed the eighth volume of perhaps the most popular novel of the period, ''The Mirror of Knighthood'' (1599).


Publishing

In some cases Creede functioned as a publisher as well as a printer, like Valentine Simmes and some others. Notably, he issued ten plays in quarto editions during an early phase of his career: * '' A Looking Glass for London and England,'' Q1, 1594; Q2, 1598 (entered 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 ...
on 5 March 1594) * ''Selimus,'' 1594 (no Register entry) * ''The Pedlar's Prophecy,'' 1595 (registered 13 May 1594) * '' The Famous Victories of Henry V,'' 1598 (registered 14 May 1594) * ''The Scottish History of James IV,'' 1598 (also registered 14 May 1594) * '' Menaechmi,'' 1595 (registered 10 June 1594) * '' The True Tragedy of Richard III,'' 1594 (Stationers' Register, 19 June 1594) * '' Locrine,'' 1595 (registered 20 July 1594) * ''Alphonsus King of Aragon,'' 1599 (no Register entry) * '' Sir Clyomon and Sir Clamydes,'' 1599 (no Register entry). ''Locrine'' is another work of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, while the anonymous ''Famous Victories of Henry V'' is generally regarded as a source for Shakespeare's play. Several plays on the list were published one or more years after registration; the reasons for the delays are unknown, though business considerations are an obvious possible answer. Creede's title pages for ''The Pedlar's Prophecy,'' ''The True Tragedy of Richard III,'' and ''A Looking Glass,'' Q1 and Q2, specify that the books would be sold by the stationer William Barley. (Creede printed a third quarto of ''A Looking Glass'' in 1602, though for this Q3 he was only the printer; Thomas Pavier was the publisher.) It can be noted that when he acted as a publisher, Creede made no attributions of authorship that are certainly false. He attributed ''James IV'' to Robert Greene, and ''A Looking Glass for London'' to Greene and
Thomas Lodge Thomas Lodge (September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Biography Early life Thomas Lodge was born about 1557 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge ...
, both of which are correct; he stated that William Warner's translation of the ''Menaechmi'' of
Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...
was "written in English by W. W." And he credited Greene's ''Alphonsus'' to "R. G." Five plays were published with no attributions of authorship. When Creede stated, on the title page of ''Locrine,'' that the play had been revised by someone with the initials "W. S.," this record of reliability suggests that it may well have been so. Creede also published works beyond the confines of drama. He issued books of verse, including reprints of
Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...
, and works on spiritual subjects, like ''The Plain Man's Spiritual Plow'' by "I. C." (1607). Creede published the third edition of Ralph Robinson's English translation of Sir
Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...
's ''
Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...
'' (1597) – and ''The True Law of Free Monarchies'' by King James I (1603). Prose works by playwrights of the era, including Middleton, Greene, and Thomas Dekker, issued from his press; Dekker's ''The Wonderful Year 1603,'' his account of the
bubonic plague Bubonic plague is one of three types of Plague (disease), plague caused by the Bacteria, bacterium ''Yersinia pestis''. One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and ...
epidemic, is a noteworthy example. And Creede published, as well as printed, ephemera, like Lewis Lavaterus's ''Of Ghosts and Spirits'' (1596).


Reputation

While Creede's skill as a printer, compared to others of his age, is widely recognized, his connection with Shakespearean bad quartos and Apocryphal plays has led scholars and critics to question his ethics. The records of the Stationers' Company show that in the summer of 1595, Creede was fined twice (sixpence, and five shillings) for violating the rules of the company. Far more seriously, Creede was prosecuted in the London consistory court in 1608 for "fornication and bastardy." The married Creede was accused of seducing a 25-year-old servant woman named Suzan More, and fathering an illegitimate child that died soon after birth.Gowing and Crawford, pp. 142–6. In 1616, Creede entered into a business partnership with Bernard Alsop, who took over the business in 1617, after Creede's death or retirement. (In 1617 Alsop issued Q4 of ''A Looking Glass'' and Q2 of ''The Famous Victories,'' with no mention of Creede.)


Notes


References


Bibliography

*Blayney, Peter. "The prevalence of shared printing in the early seventeenth century." ''Papers of the Bibliographic Society of America'' 67 (1973). * Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage.'' 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. * Gowing, Laura, and Patricia M. Crawford. ''Women's Worlds in Seventeenth-Century England.'' London, Routledge, 2000. * Halliday, F. E. ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964.'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964. *Maxwell, Baldwin. ''Studies in the Shakespeare Apocrypha.'' New York, King's Crown Press, 1956. *Pinciss, G. M. "Thomas Creede and the Repertory of the Queen's Men, 1583–1592." ''Modern Philology'' 67 (1970). *Yamada, Akihiro. ''Thomas Creede: Printer to Shakespeare and His Contemporaries.''
Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
, Meisei University Press, 1994. {{DEFAULTSORT:Creede, Thomas English printers Early editions of Shakespeare 16th-century births 17th-century deaths 17th-century English businesspeople 16th-century English businesspeople