Everything about Thomas Thorpe totally explained
Thomas Thorpe (c.
1569 or
1570 –
1635?) was an
English publisher, most famous for publishing
Shakespeare's sonnets and several works by
Christopher Marlowe and
Ben Jonson. His publication of the sonnets has long been controversial. Nineteenth-century critics thought that he might have published the poems without Shakespeare's consent;
Sidney Lee called him "predatory and irresponsible." Conversely, modern scholars Wells and Taylor assert their verdict that "Thorpe was a reputable publisher, and there's nothing intrinsically irregular about his publication."
Life
The son of an innkeeper in
Barnet,
Middlesex, Thorpe worked as an apprentice to Richard Watkins for nine years in a small shop. In 1594 Thorpe obtained his publishing rights, but was still without his printing rights. His first book published was
The First Book of Lucan, Marlowe's translation of the
Pharsalia, the copyright of which he received from
Edward Blount, who would come to be a close friend of Thorpe's. He then returned the favor by dedicating the volume to Blount, which was quite unorthodox for the time: publications were generally dedicated to
noblemen, local celebrities,
aristocracy,
royalty, and other men of distinction.
In 1605 Thorpe's publishing career took off, as he published
George Chapman's
All Fools and Ben Jonson's
Sejanus His Fall, the latter of which was also provided by Blount. It has even been speculated that Jonson himself may have even been involved in the printing, with one critic noting "The exactness of the marginal annotations, the closeness with which the typography conveyed Jonson's metrical intentions, and the corrections made in proof all suggest that Jonson oversaw the printing himself."
Thorpe was a mysterious anomaly among the
stationers of his generation: there's no evidence that he ever maintained either a print shop or a bookshop — and without such a facility it's hard to comprehend how he stayed in business. Yet he managed: he commissioned printers to do his printing and arranged for booksellers to sell his books. For one example, his 1609 edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets (see below) was printed by
George Eld, and sold by
William Aspley and William Wright. Thorpe had a cryptic relationship with Aspley; together the two men entered plays into the
Stationers' Register —
The Malcontent on July 5,
1604, and
Eastward Ho on September 4,
1605 — yet when the plays were published soon after, they were issued by Aspley alone. Thorpe remained in business until at least
1624, when he and Blount transferred the copyright of Marlowe's
Hero and Leander to fellow stationer Simon Vicars.
In 1635 Thorpe retired to a poorhouse in
Ewelme and died there shortly after, in his 60s.
The Sonnets
In 1609, Thorpe published the most important work of his career,
Shakespeare's Sonnets. His apparent disregard for Shakespeare's permission earned him a poor reputation, although modern author
Katherine Duncan-Jones has argued that he wasn't such a "scoundrel" as he was portrayed, and the amiable and admirable Blount would certainly not associate with him if he
was a scoundrel. It has even been suggested that Shakespeare
did sell his manuscript to Thorpe, because of his acquaintance with Jonson as an actor in
Sejanus, who may have recommended Thorpe to him as a good publisher.
The dedication, which is addressed to a mysterious
Mr. W.H., may have been written either by Shakespeare himself or by Thorpe. Popular belief, however, is that Shakespeare is the author of the dedication, but the identity of Mr. W.H. isn't known. Thorpe was probably responsible for the arrangement of the sonnets, with
1-
17 being the "
procreation sonnets",
18-
126 being love sonnets to the
Fair Youth (for the most part), and
127-
154 being written on a variety of subjects, including politics, sex, and the
Dark Lady. Critics have argued that Thorpe's arrangement of the sonnets is clumsy and superficial.
Notable published works
Further Information
Get more info on 'Thomas Thorpe'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://thomas_thorpe.totallyexplained.com">Thomas Thorpe Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
