Philip Chetwinde
Encyclopedia
Philip Chetwinde was a seventeenth-century London bookseller and publisher, noted for his publication of the Third Folio
Folios and Quartos (Shakespeare)
The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size...

 of Shakespeare's
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"...

 plays.

A rough start

Chetwinde was originally a clothworker. Through his 1637 marriage to Mary Allot, the widow of Second Folio
Second Folio
Second Folio is the term applied to the 1632 edition of the works of William Shakespeare, following upon the First Folio of 1623.Much language was updated; there are almost 1,700 changes from the First Folio....

 publisher Robert Allot
Robert Allot
Robert 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...

, Chetwinde acquired rights to Allot's published works — which included the rights to a substantial portion of the dramatic output of both Shakespeare and Ben Jonson
Ben Jonson
Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

. Chetwinde attempted to move into the publishing business after his marriage; but he faced opposition from the established booksellers and publishers, since he had not risen through the apprentice system 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...

. Chetwinde used his rights to Jonson's works in the publication of the Second Jonson folio
Ben Jonson folios
The folio collections of Ben Jonson's works published in the seventeenth century were crucial developments in the publication of English literature and English Renaissance drama. The first folio collection, issued in 1616, treated stage plays as serious works of literature instead of popular...

 of 1640/1, though that volume's publisher of record was Richard Meighen
Richard Meighen
Richard 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...

. It was not until 1653 that Chetwinde was able to operate fully as a stationer.

Shakespeare

In 1663
1663 in literature
The year 1663 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February - The Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres is founded in Paris....

, he employed his rights to Shakespeare's plays to publish the Third Folio, a corrected reprint of the Second Folio of 1632
1632 in literature
The year 1632 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On February 14, Tempe Restored, a masque written by Aurelian Townshend and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....

. The Third Folio was printed by Alice Warren, Roger Daniel, and either Thomas Ratcliffe or John Hayes. (In the seventeenth century and earlier, the functions of printers and publishers were largely [though not absolutely] separate; booksellers chose works to publish and commissioned printers to print them.)

In the following year, 1664
1664 in literature
The year 1664 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:* Sir William Davenant's "dramatic opera" Macbeth, adapted from Shakespeare's play, premiers on November 5....

, Chetwinde issued a second impression of the Third Folio, to which he added seven plays: Locrine
Locrine
Locrine is an Elizabethan play depicting the legendary Trojan founders of the nation of England and of Troynovant . The play presents a cluster of complex and unresolved problems for scholars of English Renaissance theatre.-Date:...

, The London Prodigal
The London Prodigal
The London Prodigal is a play in English Renaissance theatre, a city comedy set in London, in which a prodigal son learns the error of his ways. The play was published in quarto in 1605 by the stationer Nathaniel Butter, and printed by Thomas Cotes...

, The Puritan
The Puritan
The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling Street, also known as The Puritan Widow, is an anonymous Jacobean stage comedy, first published in 1607. It is often attributed to Thomas Middleton, but also belongs to the Shakespeare Apocrypha due to its title page attribution to "W.S.".-Date and...

, Sir John Oldcastle
Sir John Oldcastle
Sir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr.-Publication:...

, Thomas Lord Cromwell
Thomas Lord Cromwell
Thomas Lord Cromwell is an Elizabethan history play, depicting the life of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, the minister of King Henry VIII of England....

,
A Yorkshire Tragedy
A Yorkshire Tragedy
A Yorkshire Tragedy is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleton....

,
and Pericles, Prince of Tyre
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...

.
Only the last of these, Pericles, is accepted by the modern critical consensus as, even in part, authentically Shakespearean in authorship; the other six are part 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...

.

Career

Like virtually all the publishers of his time and place, Chetwinde produced an abundant supply of religious works; Bishop Bayly's
Lewis Bayly
Lewis Bayly was an Anglican bishop.-Life:He was educated at Oxford, became vicar of Evesham, Worcestershire, and probably in 1604 became rector of St. Matthew's Church, Friday street, London...

 The Practice of Piety, which Chetwinde issued in multiple editions, is only one example.

Chetwinde was unusual among London publishers of his generation in that he published books in the Welsh language
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

. It can be noted that Chetwinde worked, with some frequency, with female printers — the widows of printers who had continued their late husbands' businesses. Alice Warren, as noted, worked on the Third Folio; some of Chetwinde's Welsh-language books were printed by Ellen Cotes and Sarah Griffin.
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