Cuthbert Burby
Encyclopedia
Cuthbert Burby was a London bookseller and publisher of the Elizabethan
and early Jacobean
eras. He is remembered for publishing a series of significant volumes of English Renaissance drama
, including works by William Shakespeare
, Robert Greene
, John Lyly
, and Thomas Nashe
.
," though there is no known connection between the two men) was the son of Edmund Burby, a farmer in Erlsey, Bedfordshire
. Cuthbert Burby was apprenticed to the stationer William Wright for eight years as of Christmas 1584, and became a "freeman" (full member) of the Stationers Company
on January 13, 1592. He did business in London between 1592 and 1607. As his title pages attest, his shops were located 1) "under Saint Mildred's Church in the Poultry," 2) "at the Royal Exchange," and 3) "in Paul's
Churchyard at the sign of the Swan." He had "a large, flourishing, respectable business...."
Early in his career as a publisher, Burby issued works in the famous controversy between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey. Curiously, Burby published works in their exchange by both Nashe and Harvey; his connection, it appears, was not personal or ideological — just business. He also published Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller
(1594
) and Lenten Stuff (1599
).
; printed by William White) and the second quarto of Romeo and Juliet
(1599; printed by Thomas Creede
). The title page of the R&J Q2 states that that edition was "Newly corrected, augmented, and amended" — which has been interpreted to indicate that Q2 was issued as a deliberate correction and replacement for the defective Q1, the "bad quarto
" printed by John Danter in 1597
. The title page of Burby's Q1 of LLL, the earliest play text to be printed under Shakespeare's name, also claims that that edition was "Newly corrected and augmented" — which has been taken by some commentators as a possible indication of an earlier "bad quarto" of LLL that has not survived.
Burby had subsidiary connections with the Shakespeare canon as well. He published Palladis Tamia (1598) by Francis Meres
, which contains an important reference to Shakespeare and a list of Shakespearean works produced up to 1598. Burby also published (with no attribution of authorship) the first two quartos of The Taming of a Shrew (Q1, 1594; Q2, 1596), the early alternative version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
. Also, Burby issued the two early quartos of Edward III
(1596, 1599), the one play of the Shakespeare Apocrypha
that is most commonly seen as having at least some of Shakespeare's work in it.
Burby's relationship with the texts of Robert Greene is worth noting; in addition to Orlando Furioso, Burby issued Greene's pamphlets The Third and Last Part of Coney-Catching and The Repentance of Robert Greene (both 1592). The play George a Greene has sometimes been attributed to Greene's pen.
Burby often worked with the printers John Danter and Simon Stafford, as with many of the texts listed above.
famous play Doctor Faustus
. And he published Thomas Lodge
's Wit's Misery and the World's Madness in 1596.
Burby published other books on a range of subjects. He was one of the three publishers who issued Robert Allot's verse anthology England's Parnassus in 1600
(the other two being Nicholas Ling and Thomas Heyes
). He published many religious works, as did all the publishers of his era; and he issued some of the multi-volume chivalric romances that were the bestsellers of the age, like The Mirror of Knighhood and Champions of Christendom.
The overall quality of Burby's work as a publisher has been variously evaluated. Commentators have complained about the quality of the printing in some of Burby's texts; while Burby was not a printer, it can be asserted that he should have employed better craftsmen. It has even been argued that the printing in the "bad quarto" of Romeo and Juliet, Danter's 1597 Q1, is superior to the printing of the Burby/Creede Q2, the "good" quarto of 1599 — that Q2 "is on the whole less carefully printed than Q1."
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
and early Jacobean
Jacobean era
The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...
eras. He is remembered for publishing a series of significant volumes of English Renaissance drama
English Renaissance theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...
, including works by William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
, Robert Greene
Robert Greene
Robert Greene may refer to:*Robert Greene , English writer*Robert Greene *Robert Greene American author of books on strategy*Robert L. Greene, American psychologist...
, John Lyly
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
, and Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
.
Beginnings
Burby ("sometimes confused with Cuthbert BurbageCuthbert Burbage
Cuthbert Burbage was an English theatrical figure, son of impresario James Burbage and elder brother of famous actor Richard Burbage...
," though there is no known connection between the two men) was the son of Edmund Burby, a farmer in Erlsey, Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire is a ceremonial county of historic origin in England that forms part of the East of England region.It borders Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Northamptonshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the west and Hertfordshire to the south-east....
. Cuthbert Burby was apprenticed to the stationer William Wright for eight years as of Christmas 1584, and became a "freeman" (full member) of the Stationers Company
Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
on January 13, 1592. He did business in London between 1592 and 1607. As his title pages attest, his shops were located 1) "under Saint Mildred's Church in the Poultry," 2) "at the Royal Exchange," and 3) "in Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
Churchyard at the sign of the Swan." He had "a large, flourishing, respectable business...."
Early in his career as a publisher, Burby issued works in the famous controversy between Thomas Nashe and Gabriel Harvey. Curiously, Burby published works in their exchange by both Nashe and Harvey; his connection, it appears, was not personal or ideological — just business. He also published Nashe's The Unfortunate Traveller
The Unfortunate Traveller
The Unfortunate Traveller: or, the Life of Jack Wilton by Thomas Nashe is a picaresque novel set during the reign of Henry VIII of England....
(1594
1594 in literature
-Events:*The London theatres re-open in the spring, after two years of general inactivity due to the bubonic plague epidemic of 1592–94. Many of the actors who used to be Lord Strange's Men form a new organization, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, under the patronage of Henry Carey, 1st Baron...
) and Lenten Stuff (1599
1599 in literature
-Events:* Undated - Opening of the Globe Theatre.*June 4 - Middleton's Microcynicon and Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned, as ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire of the past year. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury tighten their...
).
Shakespeare
Regarding Shakespeare: Burby published two key editions of Shakespearean works, the first quarto of Love's Labor's Lost (15981598 in literature
-Events:*September 22 - Ben Jonson is charged with manslaughter, after killing actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel.*October - Edmund Spenser's castle at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork, is burned down by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill...
; printed by William White) and the second quarto of Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
(1599; printed by Thomas Creede
Thomas Creede
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London, 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...
). The title page of the R&J Q2 states that that edition was "Newly corrected, augmented, and amended" — which has been interpreted to indicate that Q2 was issued as a deliberate correction and replacement for the defective Q1, the "bad quarto
Bad quarto
Bad quarto is a term and concept developed by twentieth-century Shakespeare scholars to explain some problems in the early transmission of the texts of Shakespearean works...
" printed by John Danter in 1597
1597 in literature
-Events:*February - Pembroke's Men contract with Francis Langley to play the next year at his new Swan Theatre. Their season goes disastrously wrong in July, when they stage the scandalous play The Isle of Dogs, which provokes the authorities to close all of the London theatres for the remainder of...
. The title page of Burby's Q1 of LLL, the earliest play text to be printed under Shakespeare's name, also claims that that edition was "Newly corrected and augmented" — which has been taken by some commentators as a possible indication of an earlier "bad quarto" of LLL that has not survived.
Burby had subsidiary connections with the Shakespeare canon as well. He published Palladis Tamia (1598) by Francis Meres
Francis Meres
Francis Meres was an English churchman and author.He was born at Kirton in the Holland division of Lincolnshire in 1565. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he received a B.A. in 1587 and an M.A. in 1591. Two years later he was incorporated an M.A. of Oxford...
, which contains an important reference to Shakespeare and a list of Shakespearean works produced up to 1598. Burby also published (with no attribution of authorship) the first two quartos of The Taming of a Shrew (Q1, 1594; Q2, 1596), the early alternative version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
. Also, Burby issued the two early quartos of Edward III
Edward III (play)
The Reign of King Edward the Third is an Elizabethan play printed anonymously in 1596. It has frequently been claimed that it was at least partly written by William Shakespeare, a view that Shakespeare scholars have increasingly endorsed. The rest of the play was probably written by Thomas Kyd...
(1596, 1599), the one play of the Shakespeare Apocrypha
Shakespeare Apocrypha
The Shakespeare Apocrypha is a group of plays that have sometimes been attributed to William Shakespeare, but whose attribution is questionable for various reasons...
that is most commonly seen as having at least some of Shakespeare's work in it.
Other drama
Burby published a number of other plays, attributed or anonymous, during his career:- The Cobbler's Prophecy, Robert WilsonRobert Wilson (dramatist)Robert Wilson , was an Elizabethan dramatist who worked primarily in the 1580s and 1590s. He is also believed to have been an actor who specialized in clown roles....
(1594) - George a Greene, or The Pinner of Wakefield (1599)
- A Knack to Know an Honest Man (1596)
- Mother BombieMother BombieMother Bombie is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly. It is unique in Lyly's dramatic canon as a work of farce and social realism; in Mother Bombie alone, Lyly departs from his dream world of classical allusion and courtly comedy to create a "vulgar realistic play of rustic life"...
, John Lyly (1594, 1598) - Orlando Furioso, Robert Greene (1594, 1599).
Burby's relationship with the texts of Robert Greene is worth noting; in addition to Orlando Furioso, Burby issued Greene's pamphlets The Third and Last Part of Coney-Catching and The Repentance of Robert Greene (both 1592). The play George a Greene has sometimes been attributed to Greene's pen.
Burby often worked with the printers John Danter and Simon Stafford, as with many of the texts listed above.
Other works
Also in 1594, Burby published The Second Report of Doctor Faustus, Containing His Appearances, and the Deeds of Wagner — an anonymous prose work that elaborated the story of the magician, and which was written to capitalize on the success of Marlowe'sChristopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
famous play Doctor Faustus
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, commonly referred to simply as Doctor Faustus, is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge...
. And he published Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge was an English dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Early life and education:...
's Wit's Misery and the World's Madness in 1596.
Burby published other books on a range of subjects. He was one of the three publishers who issued Robert Allot's verse anthology England's Parnassus in 1600
1600 in literature
The year 1600 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Admiral's Men perform Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday at Court....
(the other two being Nicholas Ling and Thomas Heyes
Thomas Heyes (Publisher-bookseller)
Thomas Heyes was the publisher-bookseller who published the first quarto edition of William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, in London, in 1600. He traded from 'St Paul’s Churchyard at the sign of the Green Dragon’. - The Shakespeare Connection :...
). He published many religious works, as did all the publishers of his era; and he issued some of the multi-volume chivalric romances that were the bestsellers of the age, like The Mirror of Knighhood and Champions of Christendom.
Post mortem
The exact date of Burby's death is not known, though it fell between August 24 and September 26 in 1607. In 1609 Burby's widow assigned his copyrights, mainly of theological works, to the publisher's former apprentice Nicholas Bourne, who printed no dramatic works in his career but was a successful publisher of news who worked for many years in partnership with Nathaniel Butter.The overall quality of Burby's work as a publisher has been variously evaluated. Commentators have complained about the quality of the printing in some of Burby's texts; while Burby was not a printer, it can be asserted that he should have employed better craftsmen. It has even been argued that the printing in the "bad quarto" of Romeo and Juliet, Danter's 1597 Q1, is superior to the printing of the Burby/Creede Q2, the "good" quarto of 1599 — that Q2 "is on the whole less carefully printed than Q1."