The opening of V. PLAYS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
Tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, scene individable or poem unlimited.--Hamlet.
XXII
THE PRINTING OF PLAYS
[Bibliographical Note.--The records of the Stationers’ Company were utilized by W. Herbert in Typographical Antiquities (1785–90), based on an earlier edition (1749) by J. Ames, and revised, but not for the period most important to us, by T. F. Dibdin (1810–19). They are now largely available at first hand in E. Arber, Transcript of the Registers of the Stationers’ Company, 1554–1640 (1875–94), and G. E. B. Eyre, Transcript of the Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers, 1640–1708 (1913–14). Recent investigations are to be found in the Transactions and other publications of the Bibliographical Society, and in the periodicals Bibliographica and The Library. The best historical sketches are H. R. Plomer, A Short History of English Printing (1900), E. G. Duff, The Introduction of Printing into England (1908, C. H. ii. 310), H. G. Aldis, The Book-Trade, 1557–1625 (1909, C. H. iv. 378), and R. B. McKerrow, Booksellers, Printers, and the Stationers’ Trade (1916, Sh. England, ii. 212). Of somewhat wider range is H. G. Aldis, The Printed Book (1916). Records of individual printers are in E. G.