William Leake, father (died 1633) and son (died 1681), were
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 ...
publishers and booksellers of the late sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. They were responsible for a range of texts in
English Renaissance drama and poetry, including works by
Shakespeare
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 ...
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 ...
.
Senior
William Leake I, or William Leake the elder, started in business as a bookseller around 1586. His shops were at the sign of the Greyhound in
Paternoster Row
Paternoster Row is a street in the City of London that was a centre of the London publishing trade, with booksellers operating from the street. Paternoster Row was described as "almost synonymous" with the book trade. It was part of an area call ...
, and at the sign of the Holy Ghost in
St. Paul's Churchyard. In 1596 he acquired the rights to Shakespeare's ''
Venus and Adonis'' from John Harrison the elder, and published six editions of that very popular poem from
1599 to
1602 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1602.
Events
*February 2 – The Lord Chamberlain's Men perform '' Twelfth Night'' at the Middle Temple in London.
*May – Henry Wotton returns to Florence havin ...
(the fifth through tenth editions, or the third
octavo
Octavo, a Latin word meaning "in eighth" or "for the eighth time", (abbreviated 8vo, 8º, or In-8) is a technical term describing the format of a book, which refers to the size of leaves produced from folding a full sheet of paper on which multip ...
edition, O3, through the eighth, O8).
The elder Leake published the
first quartos of
Anthony Munday's two plays about
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary noble outlaw, heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions o ...
, ''
The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington'' (both
1601
This Epoch (reference date)#Computing, epoch is the beginning of the 400-year Gregorian leap-year cycle within which digital files first existed; the last year of any such cycle is the only leap year whose year number is divisible by 100.
Jan ...
). Leake published editions 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 ''
Euphues'' the tenth edition (both parts) in
1605, the eleventh in
1607, the twelfth in
1607 (Part I) and
1609
Events
January–March
* January 12 – The Basque witch trials are started in Spain as the court of the Spanish Inquisition, Inquisition at Logroño receives a letter from the commissioner of the village of Zugarramurdi, and ...
(Part II), and the thirteenth in
1613. He issued
Robert Southwell's ''Saint Peter's Complaint and Other Poems'' in
1595, and Thomas Greene's ''A Poet's Vision, and a Prince's Glory'' in
1603.
Leake also was responsible for volumes in a range of subjects apart from drama and literature. He published the religious books that were so common in his era — Henry Smith's ''The Sinner's Confession'' (
1594) and William Fulke's ''A Most Pleasant Prospect into the Garden of Natural Contemplation'' (1602) are two examples. And he published the kind of romances of chivalry that were the great bestsellers of the age, like ''The Knight of the Sea'' (
1600) and ''The Third and Last Part of Palmerin of England'' (1602).
William Leake the elder was selected as Master of the
Stationers Company in 1618. He retired from business after his term as master of his guild was completed.
Junior
William Leake II, or the younger, became a "freedman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company on 22 June 1623. The gap between his father's career and his own means that the younger Leake did not inherit an established business from his parent — though his father did leave him £600 and the family plate in his last will and testament. The younger Leake set himself up as an independent bookseller by 1635. His shop was located as the sign of the Crown in
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in Central London, England. It runs west to east from Temple Bar, London, Temple Bar at the boundary of the City of London, Cities of London and City of Westminster, Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the Lo ...
, and later in Chancery Lane. On 1 June 1635 the Widow Leake transferred her late husband's copyrights to William II. In 1638 he obtained control of the copyrights of the late
Richard Hawkins — and both of these consignments of rights contained play texts. This sparked the most active period of publishing across both of the Leake generations.
Even though the works of Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher had been published in large folio collections by the middle of the seventeenth century (the Shakespeare
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 ...
in
1623 and the
Second Folio 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 ...
; the
first Beaumont and Fletcher folio in
1647
Events
January–March
* January 2 – Chinese bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong, who has ruled the Sichuan province since 1644, is killed at Xichong County, Xichong by a Qing archer, after having been betrayed by one of his officer ...
), publishers continued to issue editions of individual plays when they judged there was a market for them. William Leake the younger issued several of these later editions:
* the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th editions of ''
A King and No King'' (1639, 1655, 1661, 1676);
* the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of ''
Philaster'' (1639, 1652, 1663?);
* the 5th and 6th editions of ''
The Maid's Tragedy'' (1641, 1650);
* the 4th
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 Merchant of Venice'' (1652);
* the 3rd quarto of ''
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 ...
'' (1655).
Leake also reprinted
James Shirley
James Shirley (or Sherley) (September 1596 – October 1666) was an English dramatist.
He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Charles Lamb (writer), Charles Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of ...
's ''
The Grateful Servant'' (1637) and ''
The Wedding'' (1660), as well as multiple editions 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''; ...
'' that included both
Marlowe's original and
Chapman's continuation (1637 and after).
Leake published first editions as well as reprints. In 1640 he issued John Gough's
tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...
''The Strange Discovery'', and ''Christ's Passion'',
George Sandys's translation of a tragedy by
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...
.
And like his father (indeed like most publishers of his period), the younger Leake also published a variety of other types of books, including popular literature like ''The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes'' (sixth and subsequent editions, 1639 and after) and ''Le Prince D'Amour'' (1660), and serious works like Sir
Thomas Urchard's ''Epigrams Divine and Moral'' (1646) and John Wilson's translation of ''
The Praise of Folly'' of
Eramus (1668). Leake the younger was also believed to be a friend of the Cotton Library during its direction under
Sir Thomas Cotton, publishing such constitutional works as ''An Exact Abridgement of the Records in the Tower of London'' (1657) collated by politician
William Prynne
William Prynne (1600 – 24 October 1669), an English lawyer, voluble author, polemicist and political figure, was a prominent Puritan opponent of church policy under William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (1633–1645). His views were Presbyter ...
.
William Leake the younger was followed in his business by his son John Leake.
See also
*
Walter Burre
*
Francis Constable
*
Crooke and Cooke
*
John and Richard Marriot
*
John Martyn
*
Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley (died 31 January 1661) was a prominent London publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.
Life
Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers C ...
*
William Ponsonby
*
Humphrey Robinson
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leake, William
Publishers (people) from London
1633 deaths
1681 deaths
Year of birth unknown
English booksellers