Humphrey Moseley
Encyclopedia
Humphrey Moseley was a prominent London
publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.
Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers Company
, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the Company on 7 July 1659. His shop was located at the sign of the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's
Churchyard. One of the most productive publishers of his era, Moseley's imprint exists on 314 surviving books.
of 1647
, which he published in partnership with stationer Humphrey Robinson
. Moseley partnered with Robinson on other projects too, and also with Nicholas Fussell (to 1635) and Francis Constable
. Moseley issued a range of important Jacobean and Caroline playwrights, including Thomas Middleton
, Philip Massinger
, James Shirley
, Richard Brome
, and Sir William D'Avenant. In the Commonwealth era Moseley dominated the publication of drama: "the plays brought out by him far outnumbered those of any other publisher."
In the 1640s and 1650s Moseley dominated the market for English poetry, issuing a series of single-poet collections—most prominently John Milton
(Poems, 1645
), but also John Donne
, Edmund Waller
, Richard Crashaw
, Abraham Cowley
, Henry Vaughan
, and Sir John Suckling. In terms of the Cavalier
–Roundhead
conflict that dominated their generation, the poets and playwrights published by Moseley were, in the main, Royalist sympathizers—almost inevitably, since the Puritan
s were generally hostile to drama and imaginative literature, and closed the theatres during their rule. Moseley was known to have Royalist sympathies himself—which makes his role as publisher to the Puritan Milton surprising.
Moseley collected a large body of dramatic manuscripts during the years the theatres were closed during the Puritan regime (1642–60), with the likely intent of future publication. Any such plans were forestalled by his untimely death at the very beginning of the Restoration
. Part of his collection of playscripts eventually found its way into the possession of antiquarian John Warburton
, only to be consumed in the notorious kitchen burnings, in which Warburton's cook used the manuscripts as scrap paper.
, including Robert Fludd
; he also published Sir Francis Bacon, and, curiously, the music of René Descartes
. And he printed a wide variety of general-interest works — Thomas Barker's The Art of Angling (1659
) being only one example. He also engaged in the then-new practice of cataloguing his works — though he did not go as far as some of his contemporaries did, and try to catalogue an entire field of publishing. Moseley included a catalogue of 135 of his publications in his 1653
edition of Five New Plays by Richard Brome
, and another catalogue of 180 Moseley products in his 1654
edition of Sir Aston Cockayne
's Dianea.
of the Stationers Company that touch upon Shakespeare
. (Such registrations were claims to the rights to publish a given work, and had to precede any legal publication.) On 9 September 1653, Moseley registered the play Cardenio
as the work of William Shakespeare
and John Fletcher
, and plays titled Henry I and Henry II as the work of Shakespeare and Robert Davenport
. On 29 June 1660
, he registered three plays, The History of King Stephen, Duke Humphrey, a Tragedy, and Iphis and Iantha, or A Marriage Without a Man, a Comedy (a treatment of Ovid
's story of Iphis
and Ianthe
) — all allegedly by Shakespeare. Scholars have generally rejected the idea of such plays as Shakespearean works, but now the Cardenio attribution and the supposed derived work Double Falshood
have been given some standing.
, Humphrey Moseley's successor as the dominant publisher of his generation.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
publisher and bookseller in the middle seventeenth century.
Possibly a son of publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley became a "freeman" (a 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...
, the guild of London booksellers, on 7 May 1627; he was selected a Warden of the Company on 7 July 1659. His shop was located at the sign of the Prince's Arms in St. 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. One of the most productive publishers of his era, Moseley's imprint exists on 314 surviving books.
Drama and poetry
Moseley is best known for the first Beaumont and Fletcher folioBeaumont and Fletcher folios
The Beaumont and Fletcher folios were two large folio collections of the stage plays of John Fletcher and his collaborators. The first was issued in 1647, and the second in 1679. The two collections were important in preserving many works of English Renaissance drama.-The first folio, 1647:The 1647...
of 1647
1647 in literature
The year 1647 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Thomas Hobbes becomes tutor to the future Charles II of England.* Plagiarist Robert Baron publishes his Deorum Dona, a masque, and Gripus and Hegio, a pastoral, which draw heavily on the poems of Edmund Waller and John Webster's...
, which he published in partnership with stationer Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson
Humphrey Robinson was a prominent London publisher and bookseller of the middle seventeenth century.Robinson was the son of a Bernard Robinson, a clerk from Carlisle; other members of his family were important clergymen and church office-holders. Humphrey Robinson became a "freeman" of the ...
. Moseley partnered with Robinson on other projects too, and also with Nicholas Fussell (to 1635) and Francis Constable
Francis Constable
Francis Constable was a London bookseller and publisher of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, noted for publishing a number of stage plays of English Renaissance drama....
. Moseley issued a range of important Jacobean and Caroline playwrights, including Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. Middleton stands with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson as among the most successful and prolific of playwrights who wrote their best plays during the Jacobean period. He was one of the few Renaissance dramatists to achieve equal success in...
, Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger
Philip Massinger was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including A New Way to Pay Old Debts, The City Madam and The Roman Actor, are noted for their satire and realism, and their political and social themes.-Early life:The son of Arthur Massinger or Messenger, he was baptized at St....
, James Shirley
James Shirley
James Shirley was an English dramatist.He belonged to the great period of English dramatic literature, but, in Lamb's words, he "claims a place among the worthies of this period, not so much for any transcendent genius in himself, as that he was the last of a great race, all of whom spoke nearly...
, Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
, and Sir William D'Avenant. In the Commonwealth era Moseley dominated the publication of drama: "the plays brought out by him far outnumbered those of any other publisher."
In the 1640s and 1650s Moseley dominated the market for English poetry, issuing a series of single-poet collections—most prominently John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
(Poems, 1645
1645 in literature
The year 1645 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* With the London theatres closed by the Puritan regime during the English Civil War, closet drama grows in prominence. Henry Burkhead's Cola's Fury, or Lirenda's Misery is published in 1645...
), but also John Donne
John Donne
John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
, Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller
Edmund Waller, FRS was an English poet and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1624 and 1679.- Early life :...
, Richard Crashaw
Richard Crashaw
Richard Crashaw , English poet, styled "the divine," was part of the Seventeenth-century Metaphysical School of poets.-Life:...
, Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley
Abraham Cowley was an English poet born in the City of London late in 1618. He was one of the leading English poets of the 17th century, with 14 printings of his Works published between 1668 and 1721.-Early life and career:...
, Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan was a Welsh physician and metaphysical poet.Vaughan and his twin brother the hermetic philosopher and alchemist Thomas Vaughan, were the sons of Thomas Vaughan and his wife Denise of 'Trenewydd', Newton, in Brecknockshire, Wales...
, and Sir John Suckling. In terms of the Cavalier
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...
–Roundhead
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...
conflict that dominated their generation, the poets and playwrights published by Moseley were, in the main, Royalist sympathizers—almost inevitably, since the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
s were generally hostile to drama and imaginative literature, and closed the theatres during their rule. Moseley was known to have Royalist sympathies himself—which makes his role as publisher to the Puritan Milton surprising.
Moseley collected a large body of dramatic manuscripts during the years the theatres were closed during the Puritan regime (1642–60), with the likely intent of future publication. Any such plans were forestalled by his untimely death at the very beginning of the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
. Part of his collection of playscripts eventually found its way into the possession of antiquarian John Warburton
John Warburton (officer of arms)
John Warburton was Somerset Herald of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms in the early 18th century. Warburton was a collector of old drama manuscripts, who is perhaps most notable because of his carelessness. On one occasion, he left a pile of manuscripts in the kitchen. When he came looking...
, only to be consumed in the notorious kitchen burnings, in which Warburton's cook used the manuscripts as scrap paper.
Other works
Moseley published works by alchemistsAlchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, including Robert Fludd
Robert Fludd
Robert Fludd, also known as Robertus de Fluctibus was a prominent English Paracelsian physician, astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist, Rosicrucian apologist...
; he also published Sir Francis Bacon, and, curiously, the music of René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
. And he printed a wide variety of general-interest works — Thomas Barker's The Art of Angling (1659
1659 in literature
The year 1659 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Andrew Marvell becomes a member of Parliament.* Méric Casaubon edits John Dee's journal of angel magic.-New books:*Richard Baxter - The Holy Commonwealth...
) being only one example. He also engaged in the then-new practice of cataloguing his works — though he did not go as far as some of his contemporaries did, and try to catalogue an entire field of publishing. Moseley included a catalogue of 135 of his publications in his 1653
1653 in literature
The year 1653 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* James Shirley's masque Cupid and Death is performed on March 26.* Pierre Corneille retires from the theatre for six years.* John Evelyn buys Sayes Court, Deptford....
edition of Five New Plays by Richard Brome
Richard Brome
Richard Brome was an English dramatist of the Caroline era.-Life:Virtually nothing is known about Brome's private life. Repeated allusions in contemporary works, like Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, indicate that Brome started out as a servant of Jonson, in some capacity...
, and another catalogue of 180 Moseley products in his 1654
1654 in literature
The year 1654 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Lady Dorothy Osborne plays the lead role in a country-house staging of Sir William Berkeley's tragicomedy The Lost Lady. While the London theatres remain closed, amateur theatricals continue at private houses in England...
edition of Sir Aston Cockayne
Aston Cockayne
Sir Aston Cockayne, Baronet of Ashbourne was, in his day, a well-known Cavalier and a minor literary figure, now best remembered as a friend of Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, Michael Drayton, Richard Brome, Thomas Randolph, and other writers of his generation.-Biography:Aston Cockayne was the...
's Dianea.
Shakespeare
Moseley has earned the respect and praise of bibliographers and collectors for the quality and selection of his output. He is also a footnote in Shakespeare studies, due to two sets of entries Moseley made in the RegisterStationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
of the Stationers Company that touch upon 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"...
. (Such registrations were claims to the rights to publish a given work, and had to precede any legal publication.) On 9 September 1653, Moseley registered the play Cardenio
Cardenio
The History of Cardenio, often referred to as merely Cardenio, is a lost play, known to have been performed by The King's Men, a London theatre company, in 1613. It was attributed to William Shakespeare and John Fletcher in a Stationers' Register entry of 1653...
as the work of 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"...
and John Fletcher
John Fletcher (playwright)
John Fletcher was a Jacobean playwright. Following William Shakespeare as house playwright for the King's Men, he was among the most prolific and influential dramatists of his day; both during his lifetime and in the early Restoration, his fame rivalled Shakespeare's...
, and plays titled Henry I and Henry II as the work of Shakespeare and Robert Davenport
Robert Davenport
Robert Davenport was an English dramatist of the early seventeenth century. Nothing is known of his early life or education; the title pages of two of his plays identify him as a "Gentleman," though there is no record of him at either of the two universities or the Inns of Court. Scholars have...
. On 29 June 1660
1660 in literature
The year 1660 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* January 1 - Samuel Pepys starts his diary.* February - John Rhodes reopens the old Cockpit Theatre in London, forms a company of young actors and begins to stage plays...
, he registered three plays, The History of King Stephen, Duke Humphrey, a Tragedy, and Iphis and Iantha, or A Marriage Without a Man, a Comedy (a treatment of Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's story of Iphis
Iphis
Iphis was a name attributed to three individuals:-Daughter of Ligdus :According to Greek mythology and the Roman poet Ovid, who wrote about transformations in his Metamorphoses, Iphis was the daughter of Telethusa and Ligdus in Crete. Ligdus had already threatened to kill his pregnant wife's...
and Ianthe
Ianthe
Ianthe was a name attributed to three figures in Greek mythology.*Ianthe was a Cretan girl who was betrothed to Iphis. Iphis was a woman raised as a man; she also fell in love with Ianthe and prayed to the gods to allow the two women to marry...
) — all allegedly by Shakespeare. Scholars have generally rejected the idea of such plays as Shakespearean works, but now the Cardenio attribution and the supposed derived work Double Falshood
Double Falshood
Double Falshood; or, The Distrest Lovers is an early 18th century play by the English writer and playwright Lewis Theobald. Many scholars believe it to be an adaptation of a lost play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher known as Cardenio...
have been given some standing.
Post mortem
Moseley's last will and testament named his "dear and loving wife" Anne Moseley and his "dutiful child and only daughter," also named Anne, as his executrices. They carried on the business after his death. (Two of Moseley's workers, Henry Penton and John Langford, received bequests of £5 each in the will — provided they continued to work for the firm.) When the widow Moseley eventually liquidated the business, many of the Moseley copyrights were purchased by Henry HerringmanHenry Herringman
Henry Herringman was a prominent London bookseller and publisher in the second half of the 17th century. He is especially noted for his publications in English Renaissance drama and English Restoration drama; he was the first publisher of the works of John Dryden...
, Humphrey Moseley's successor as the dominant publisher of his generation.
See also
- Robert AllotRobert AllotRobert Allot 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...
- William AspleyWilliam AspleyWilliam Aspley was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. He was a member of the publishing syndicates that issued the First Folio and Second Folio collections of Shakespeare's plays, in 1623 and 1632.-Career:...
- Edward BlountEdward BlountEdward Blount was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras, noted for his publication, in conjunction with William and Isaac Jaggard, of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623....
- Philip ChetwindePhilip ChetwindePhilip Chetwinde was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the Third Folio of Shakespeare's plays.-A rough start:Chetwinde was originally a clothworker...
- Thomas CotesThomas CotesThomas Cotes was a London printer of the Jacobean and Caroline eras, best remembered for printing the Second Folio edition of Shakespeare's plays in 1632.-Life and work:...
- Crooke and CookeAndrew Crooke and William CookeAndrew Crooke and William Cooke were London publishers of the mid-17th-century. In partnership and individually, they issued significant texts of English Renaissance drama, most notably of the plays of James Shirley....
- Richard FieldRichard Field (printer)Richard Field was a printer and publisher in Elizabethan London, best known for his close association with the poems of William Shakespeare, with whom he grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon.-Life and career:...
- Richard HawkinsRichard Hawkins (publisher)Richard Hawkins was a London 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...
- William JaggardWilliam JaggardWilliam Jaggard was an Elizabethan and Jacobean printer and publisher, best known for his connection with the texts of William Shakespeare, most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays...
- Richard MeighenRichard MeighenRichard Meighen 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 1640/1, and was a member of the syndicate that issued the Second Folio of Shakespeare's collected plays in...
- John SmethwickJohn SmethwickJohn Smethwick was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras. Along with colleague William Aspley, Smethwick was one of the "junior partners" in the publishing syndicate that issued the First Folio collection of Shakespeare's plays in 1623. As his title pages specify, his...