"To Be A Printer Or Not To Be A Printer" - William Shakespeare 

  

"Thou has most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar-school; and whereas, before our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou has caused printing to be used; and, contrary to the king, his crown, and dignity, thou hast built a paper-mill." 

-King Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV Sc. 7 

 

Printers have claimed certain poets as their brethren in the trade. William Blake, Walt Whitman, Joaquin Miller, and Carl Sandburg have all been intoxicated by the smell of printer's ink. Could this printer's bond, the professional pride, the kinship extend to the great bard, William Shakespeare? 

 

Shakespearean scholars have speculated on the possibility of a printing sideline for Shakespeare. Zealous printers have jumped on the evidence and spread the rumor that Shakespeare was a printer in tale and lore. 

 

There are at least 365 references to books, printing, and reading in his collected works. Yet, he published none of his own plays and stood by as others printed corrupted versions. It is possible, however, that he did have a hand in publishing two of his long poems. 

 

In 1592, the bubonic plague swept over London and closed all the theaters for two years. In need of money, Shakespeare turned to writing poetry. His link with printing could be found in the printing office of Richard Field. Field, like Shakespeare, had grown up in Stratford-upon-Avon and then moved to London to seek his fortune. They knew each other and it was natural for Shakespeare to go to him for printing. The two narrative poems, Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece were published at Field's shop in 1593 and 1594. 

 

English printing at this time was considered poor by contrast with that of other European printers. Many English works were full of errors. Yet, Shakespeare's poems were relatively free of typos. Why? Could the unemployed playwright have been at the pressman's side to make the corrections? 

 

If he had a hand in printing these poems, why did he not publish his plays? 

Why did he allow others to pirate his plays? Unscrupulous printers bought stolen scripts from actors or paid to have actors or patrons transcribe the lines from memory. This lead to various corrupted versions in quarto form that appeared during Shakespeare's life. Quarto referred to a sheet that was folded twice, into four leaves, or eight pages. 

 

In 1623, seven years after his death, friends of Shakespeare collaborated to print the "First Folio". Its page format was twice as big as the quarto editions. A folio was folded once and had only two leaves of four pages. It was a huge expense and a labor of love to print the 750 copies of Shakespeare's plays. It took two years to print the 36 plays contained in the book. It included the first printed versions of Macbeth, The Tempest, As You Like It and others which would have been lost without the art of the printing press.

Was Shakespeare a printer? The question remains. To quote from The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I Sc. 4.. "Thereby hangs a tale" 

Part of the information for this column comes from "The Smithsonian Book" of Books by Michael Olmert, published in 1992.