Thomas Creede
Encyclopedia
Thomas Creede was a printer of the Elizabethan
and Jacobean
eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London
, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to 1617. Creede is best known for printing editions of works in English Renaissance drama
, especially for ten editions of six Shakespearean
plays and three works in the Shakespeare Apocrypha
.
or booksellers, who subcontracted the job of printing to professional printers. Those individuals, like William Jaggard
of First Folio
fame, who regularly functioned as both publishers and printers, were the exceptions to the general rule. Much of Creede's most noteworthy work, as with Shakespearean texts, followed this model — he worked as a printer hired by booksellers; yet Creede did a not-insignificant amount of publishing too (see below).
For the bookseller Thomas Millington
, Creede printed:
For Andrew Wise
, Creede printed:
For Matthew Law (who acquired the rights to Richard III from Wise in 1603), Creede printed:
For Cuthbert Burby
, Creede printed:
For Thomas Millington and John Busby, Creede printed:
For Thomas Pavier (who acquired the rights to Henry V later in 1600), Creede printed:
For Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:
For Henry Gosson, Creede, along with fellow printer William White, printed:
For Nathaniel Butter
, Creede printed the sole quarto
of:
And for Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:
Creede was responsible for a number of play texts beyond the confines of Shakespeariana. He printed the sole quartos of the anonymous plays The Maid's Metamorphosis
and The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll
, both for Richard Olive, in 1600; he printed the first quartos of George Chapman
's Monsieur D'Olive
for William Holmes (1606
), and Beaumont and Fletcher
's Cupid's Revenge
and Wentworth Smith
's Hector of Germany, both for Josias Harrison (both 1615
), and the second quarto of John Lyly
's Mother Bombie
for Cuthbert Burby (1598). For Richard Hawkins, Creede printed The Tragedy of Mariam
(1613
) by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary
, the first original tragedy by a woman author published in English.
And for Richard Olive, Creede printed one of the more significant non-dramatic texts of English Renaissance drama, the 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene
known as Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit
, which contains the earliest citation of Shakespeare in a theatrical context yet discovered. For Thomas Bushell, Creede printed the Microcynicon
of Thomas Middleton
(1599), which was suppressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury
.
Inevitably, Creede also worked on many non-dramatic projects, some of serious merit; in 1597 he printed the fifth edition of Spenser's
The Shepherd's Calendar for John Harrison the Younger. Equally inevitably, he printed works of ephemeral interest, now forgotten. For Thomas Woodcocke, for instance, Creede printed John Dickenson's Arisbas: Euphues Amidst His Slumbers, or Cupid's Journey to Hell in 1594. Creede printed many of the prose romances of chivalry that were immensely popular in his era. Working in another instance for Richard Olive, he printed Emanuel Ford's Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia (1598). It must have been a success: nine years later Creede would both print and publish another of Ford's novels, The Most Pleasant History of Ornatus and Artesia (1607
). For Cuthbert Burby, Creede printed the eighth volume of perhaps the most popular novel of the period, The Mirror of Knighthood (1599).
and some others. Notably, he issued ten plays in quarto editions during an early phase of his career:
Locrine is another work of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, while the anonymous Famous Victories of Henry V is generally regarded as a source for Shakespeare's play. Several plays on the list were published one or more years after registration; the reasons for the delays are unknown, though business considerations are an obvious possible answer. Creede's title pages for The Pedlar's Prophecy, The True Tragedy of Richard III, and A Looking Glass, Q1 and Q2, specify that the books would be sold by the stationer William Barley
. (Creede printed a third quarto of A Looking Glass in 1602, though for this Q3 he was only the printer; Thomas Pavier was the publisher.)
It can be noted that when he acted as a publisher, Creede made no attributions of authorship that are certainly false.
He attributed James IV to Robert Greene, and A Looking Glass for London to Greene and Thomas Lodge
, both of which are correct; he stated that William Warner's
translation of the Menaechmi of Plautus
was "written in English by W. W." And he credited Greene's Alphonsus to "R. G." Five plays were published with no attributions of authorship. When Creede stated, on the title page of Locrine, that the play had been revised by someone with the initials "W. S.," this record of reliability suggests that it may well have been so.
Creede also published works beyond the confines of drama. He issued books of verse, including reprints of Virgil
, and works on spiritual subjects, like The Plain Man's Spiritual Plow by "I. C." (1607). Creede published the third edition of Ralph Robinson's English translation of Sir Thomas More
's Utopia
(1597) — and The True Law of Free Monarchies by King James I
(1603). Prose works by playwrights of the era, including Middleton, Greene, and Thomas Dekker, issued from his press; Dekker's The Wonderful Year 1603, his account of the bubonic plague
epidemic, is a noteworthy example. And Creede published, as well as printed, ephemera, like Lewis Lavaterus's Of Ghosts and Spirits (1596).
In 1616, Creede entered into a business partnership with Bernard Alsop, who took over the business in 1617, after Creede's death or retirement. (In 1617 Alsop issued Q4 of A Looking Glass and Q2 of The Famous Victories, with no mention of Creede.)
Elizabethan era
The Elizabethan era was the epoch in English history of Queen Elizabeth I's reign . Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history...
and Jacobean
Jacobean era
The Jacobean era refers to the period in English and Scottish history that coincides with the reign of King James VI of Scotland, who also inherited the crown of England in 1603 as James I...
eras, rated as "one of the best of his time." Based in London
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...
, he conducted his business under the sign of the Catherine Wheel in Thames Street from 1593 to 1600, and under the sign of the Eagle and Child in the Old Exchange from 1600 to 1617. Creede is best known for printing editions of works in English Renaissance drama
English Renaissance theatre
English Renaissance theatre, also known as early modern English theatre, refers to the theatre of England, largely based in London, which occurred between the Reformation and the closure of the theatres in 1642...
, especially for ten editions of six Shakespearean
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 and three works in 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...
.
Printing
In Creede's era, the disciplines of printing and publishing were generally conducted separately. Books were published by stationersWorshipful 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...
or booksellers, who subcontracted the job of printing to professional printers. Those individuals, like William Jaggard
William Jaggard
William 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...
of First Folio
First Folio
Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....
fame, who regularly functioned as both publishers and printers, were the exceptions to the general rule. Much of Creede's most noteworthy work, as with Shakespearean texts, followed this model — he worked as a printer hired by booksellers; yet Creede did a not-insignificant amount of publishing too (see below).
For the bookseller Thomas Millington
Thomas Millington
Thomas Millington was a London publisher of the Elizabethan era, who published first editions of three Shakespearean plays...
, Creede printed:
- Henry VI, Part 2Henry VI, part 2Henry VI, Part 2 or The Second Part of Henry the Sixt is a history play by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1591, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England...
, Q1, 15941594 in literature-Events:*The London theatres re-open in the spring, after two years of general inactivity due to the bubonic plague epidemic of 1592–94. Many of the actors who used to be Lord Strange's Men form a new organization, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, under the patronage of Henry Carey, 1st Baron...
For Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise
Andrew Wise , or Wyse or Wythes, was a London publisher of the Elizabethan era who issued first editions of five Shakespearean plays...
, Creede printed:
- Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
, Q2, 15981598 in literature-Events:*September 22 - Ben Jonson is charged with manslaughter, after killing actor Gabriel Spenser in a duel.*October - Edmund Spenser's castle at Kilcolman, near Doneraile in North Cork, is burned down by the native Irish forces of Aodh Ó Néill... - Richard III, Q3, 16021602 in literatureThe year 1602 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple.*May 4 - Richard Hakluyt is installed as prebendary of Westminster....
For Matthew Law (who acquired the rights to Richard III from Wise in 1603), Creede printed:
- Richard III, Q4, 16051605 in literatureThe year 1605 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Queen's Revels Children perform George Chapman's All Fools at Court....
- Richard III, Q5, 16121612 in literatureThe year 1612 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.*January 12 - The King's Men and Queen Anne's Men unite for the first of two Court performances in January, with Thomas Heywood's The Silver Age*January 13 - The King's...
For Cuthbert Burby
Cuthbert Burby
Cuthbert Burby was a London bookseller and publisher of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras. He is remembered for publishing a series of significant volumes of English Renaissance drama, including works by William Shakespeare, Robert Greene, John Lyly, and Thomas Nashe.-Beginnings:Burby...
, Creede printed:
- Romeo and JulietRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, 15991599 in literature-Events:* Undated - Opening of the Globe Theatre.*June 4 - Middleton's Microcynicon and Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned, as ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire of the past year. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury tighten their...
(the "good" quarto, as opposed to the "bad" Q1 of 15971597 in literature-Events:*February - Pembroke's Men contract with Francis Langley to play the next year at his new Swan Theatre. Their season goes disastrously wrong in July, when they stage the scandalous play The Isle of Dogs, which provokes the authorities to close all of the London theatres for the remainder of...
)
For Thomas Millington and John Busby, Creede printed:
- Henry VHenry V (play)Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to be written in approximately 1599. Its full titles are The Cronicle History of Henry the Fifth and The Life of Henry the Fifth...
, Q1, 16001600 in literatureThe year 1600 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - The Admiral's Men perform Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday at Court....
(a "bad quartoBad quartoBad quarto is a term and concept developed by twentieth-century Shakespeare scholars to explain some problems in the early transmission of the texts of Shakespearean works...
")
For Thomas Pavier (who acquired the rights to Henry V later in 1600), Creede printed:
- Henry V, Q2, 1602 (another "bad quarto")
For Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:
- The Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of WindsorThe Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
, Q1 1602 (yet another "bad quarto")
For Henry Gosson, Creede, along with fellow printer William White, printed:
- Pericles, Prince of TyrePericles, Prince of TyrePericles, 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...
, Q1, 16091609 in literatureThe year 1609 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - the Children of the Blackfriars perform Middleton's A Trick to Catch the Old One at Court....
For Nathaniel Butter
Nathaniel Butter
Nathaniel Butter was a London publisher of the early 17th century. The publisher of the first edition of Shakespeare's King Lear in 1608, he has also been regarded as one of the first publishers of a newspaper in English....
, Creede printed the sole quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...
of:
- The London ProdigalThe London ProdigalThe 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...
, Q, 1605, one of the plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha; assigned on the title page to "William Shakespeare"
And for Arthur Johnson, Creede printed:
- The Merry Devil of EdmontonThe Merry Devil of EdmontonThe Merry Devil of Edmonton is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy about a magician, Peter Fabel, nicknamed the Merry Devil.Scholars have conjectured dates of authorship for the play as early as 1592, though most favor a date in the 1600–4 period...
, Q2, 1612; another Apocryphal play.
Creede was responsible for a number of play texts beyond the confines of Shakespeariana. He printed the sole quartos of the anonymous plays The Maid's Metamorphosis
The Maid's Metamorphosis
The Maid's Metamorphosis is a late Elizabethan stage play, a pastoral first published in 1600. The play, "a comedy of considerable merit," was published anonymously, and its authorship has been a long-standing point of dispute among scholars....
and The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll
The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll
The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll is a later Elizabethan stage play, an anonymous comedy first published in 1600. It is illustrative of the type of drama staged by the companies of child actors when they returned to public performance in that era....
, both for Richard Olive, in 1600; he printed the first quartos of George Chapman
George Chapman
George Chapman was an English dramatist, translator, and poet. He was a classical scholar, and his work shows the influence of Stoicism. Chapman has been identified as the Rival Poet of Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Minto, and as an anticipator of the Metaphysical Poets...
's Monsieur D'Olive
Monsieur D'Olive
Monsier D'Olive is an early Jacobean era stage play, a comedy written by George Chapman.The play was first published in 1606, in a quarto printed by Thomas Creede for the bookseller William Holmes. This was the drama's sole edition before the 19th century...
for William Holmes (1606
1606 in literature
The year 1606 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*May 27 - The English Parliament passes An Act to Restrain Abuses of Players, which tightens the censorship controls on public theatre performances, most notably on the question of profane oaths.*December 26 - Shakespeare's King...
), and Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher
Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, who collaborated in their writing during the reign of James I ....
's Cupid's Revenge
Cupid's Revenge
Cupid's Revenge is a Jacobean tragedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher. It was a popular success that influenced subsequent works by other authors.-Date and performance:...
and Wentworth Smith
Wentworth Smith
Wentworth Smith , was a minor English dramatist of the Elizabethan period who may have been responsible for some of the plays in the Shakespeare Apocrypha, though no work known to be his is extant.-Life and career:...
's Hector of Germany, both for Josias Harrison (both 1615
1615 in literature
The year 1615 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 6 - Mercury Vindicated from the Alchemists, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
), and the second quarto of John Lyly
John Lyly
John Lyly was an English writer, best known for his books Euphues,The Anatomy of Wit and Euphues and His England. Lyly's linguistic style, originating in his first books, is known as Euphuism.-Biography:John Lyly was born in Kent, England, in 1553/1554...
's Mother Bombie
Mother Bombie
Mother Bombie is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy by John Lyly. It is unique in Lyly's dramatic canon as a work of farce and social realism; in Mother Bombie alone, Lyly departs from his dream world of classical allusion and courtly comedy to create a "vulgar realistic play of rustic life"...
for Cuthbert Burby (1598). For Richard Hawkins, Creede printed The Tragedy of Mariam
The Tragedy of Mariam
The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry is a Jacobean era closet drama written by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary, and first published in 1613. The play is the first work by a woman that was published under her own name. The play received only marginal attention until the 1970's, when feminist...
(1613
1613 in literature
The year 1613 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*English poet Francis Quarles becomes cupbearer to Princess Elizabeth....
) by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary
Elizabeth Tanfield Cary
Elizabeth Cary, Lady Falkland , née Tanfield, was an English poet, translator, and dramatist. Precocious and studious, she was known from a young age for her learning and knowledge of languages.-Life:...
, the first original tragedy by a woman author published in English.
And for Richard Olive, Creede printed one of the more significant non-dramatic texts of English Renaissance drama, the 1592 pamphlet by Robert Greene
Robert Greene (16th century)
Robert Greene was an English author best known for a posthumous pamphlet attributed to him, Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit, widely believed to contain a polemic attack on William Shakespeare. He was born in Norwich and attended Cambridge University, receiving a B.A. in 1580, and an M.A...
known as Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit
Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit
Greenes, Groats-worth of Witte, bought with a million of Repentance is a tract published as the work of the recently deceased playwright Robert Greene...
, which contains the earliest citation of Shakespeare in a theatrical context yet discovered. For Thomas Bushell, Creede printed the Microcynicon
Microcynicon: Six Snarling Satires
Microcynicon is a work of poetic satire written by English playwright Thomas Middleton in 1597 and 1598. The published version was burned publicly as part of the Archbishop of Canterbury's attack on verse satire. Although a minor work, the poems included prefigure the interests of Middleton's...
of 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...
(1599), which was suppressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
.
Inevitably, Creede also worked on many non-dramatic projects, some of serious merit; in 1597 he printed the fifth edition of Spenser's
Edmund Spenser
Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...
The Shepherd's Calendar for John Harrison the Younger. Equally inevitably, he printed works of ephemeral interest, now forgotten. For Thomas Woodcocke, for instance, Creede printed John Dickenson's Arisbas: Euphues Amidst His Slumbers, or Cupid's Journey to Hell in 1594. Creede printed many of the prose romances of chivalry that were immensely popular in his era. Working in another instance for Richard Olive, he printed Emanuel Ford's Parismus, the Renowned Prince of Bohemia (1598). It must have been a success: nine years later Creede would both print and publish another of Ford's novels, The Most Pleasant History of Ornatus and Artesia (1607
1607 in literature
The year 1607 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Barnes's The Devil's Charter at Court.*June 5 - John Hall marries Susanna, daughter of William Shakespeare....
). For Cuthbert Burby, Creede printed the eighth volume of perhaps the most popular novel of the period, The Mirror of Knighthood (1599).
Publishing
In some cases Creede functioned as a publisher as well as a printer, like Valentine SimmesValentine Simmes
Valentine Simmes was an Elizabethan era and Jacobean era printer; he did business in London, "on Adling Hill near Bainard's Castle at the sign of the White Swan." Simmes has a reputation as one of the better printers of his generation, and was responsible for several quartos of Shakespeare's plays...
and some others. Notably, he issued ten plays in quarto editions during an early phase of his career:
- A Looking Glass for London and England, Q1, 1594; Q2, 1598 (entered into the Stationers' RegisterStationers' RegisterThe 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...
on 5 March 1594) - Selimus, 1594 (no Register entry)
- The Pedlar's Prophecy, 1595 (registered 13 May 1594)
- The Famous Victories of Henry V, 1598 (registered 14 May 1594)
- The Scottish History of James IV, 1598 (also registered 14 May 1594)
- MenaechmiMenaechmiMenaechmi, a Latin-language play, is often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as The Brothers Menaechmus or The Two Menaechmuses....
, 1595 (registered 10 June 1594) - The True Tragedy of Richard IIIThe True Tragedy of Richard IIIThe True Tragedy of Richard III is an anonymous Elizabethan history play on the subject of Richard III of England. It has attracted the attention of scholars of English Renaissance drama principally for the question of its relationship with Shakespeare's Richard III.The True Tragedy of Richard III...
, 1594 (Stationers' Register, 19 June 1594) - LocrineLocrineLocrine 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:...
, 1595 (registered 20 July 1594) - Alphonsus King of Aragon, 1599 (no Register entry)
- Sir Clyomon and Sir ClamydesSir Clyomon and Sir ClamydesThe History of the Two Valiant Knights, Sir Clyomon Knight of the Golden Shield, Son to the King of Denmark, and Clamydes the White Knight, Son to the King of Swabia is an early Elizabethan stage play, first published in 1599 but written perhaps three decades earlier...
, 1599 (no Register entry).
Locrine is another work of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, while the anonymous Famous Victories of Henry V is generally regarded as a source for Shakespeare's play. Several plays on the list were published one or more years after registration; the reasons for the delays are unknown, though business considerations are an obvious possible answer. Creede's title pages for The Pedlar's Prophecy, The True Tragedy of Richard III, and A Looking Glass, Q1 and Q2, specify that the books would be sold by the stationer William Barley
William Barley
William Barley was an English bookseller and publisher. He completed an apprenticeship as a draper in 1587, but was soon working in the London book trade. As a freeman of the Drapers' Company, he was embroiled in a dispute between it and the Stationers' Company over the rights of drapers to...
. (Creede printed a third quarto of A Looking Glass in 1602, though for this Q3 he was only the printer; Thomas Pavier was the publisher.)
It can be noted that when he acted as a publisher, Creede made no attributions of authorship that are certainly false.
He attributed James IV to Robert Greene, and A Looking Glass for London to Greene and Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge
Thomas Lodge was an English dramatist and writer of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods.-Early life and education:...
, both of which are correct; he stated that William Warner's
William Warner (poet)
William Warner was an English poet.-Life:William Warner was born in London about 1558. He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree. He practised in London as an attorney, and gained a great reputation among his contemporaries as a poet...
translation of the Menaechmi of Plautus
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus , commonly known as "Plautus", was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest surviving intact works in Latin literature. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by the innovator of Latin literature, Livius Andronicus...
was "written in English by W. W." And he credited Greene's Alphonsus to "R. G." Five plays were published with no attributions of authorship. When Creede stated, on the title page of Locrine, that the play had been revised by someone with the initials "W. S.," this record of reliability suggests that it may well have been so.
Creede also published works beyond the confines of drama. He issued books of verse, including reprints of Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
, and works on spiritual subjects, like The Plain Man's Spiritual Plow by "I. C." (1607). Creede published the third edition of Ralph Robinson's English translation of Sir Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
's Utopia
Utopia
Utopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
(1597) — and The True Law of Free Monarchies by King James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
(1603). Prose works by playwrights of the era, including Middleton, Greene, and Thomas Dekker, issued from his press; Dekker's The Wonderful Year 1603, his account of the bubonic plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
epidemic, is a noteworthy example. And Creede published, as well as printed, ephemera, like Lewis Lavaterus's Of Ghosts and Spirits (1596).
Reputation
While Creede's skill as a printer, compared to others of his age, is widely recognized, his connection with Shakespearean bad quartos and Apocryphal plays has led scholars and critics to question his ethics. The records of the Stationers' Company show that in the summer of 1595, Creede was fined twice (sixpence, and five shillings) for violating the rules of the Company. Far more seriously, Creede was prosecuted in the London consistory court in 1608 for "fornication and bastardy." The married Creede was accused of seducing a 25-year-old servant woman named Suzan More, and fathering an illegitimate child that died soon after birth.In 1616, Creede entered into a business partnership with Bernard Alsop, who took over the business in 1617, after Creede's death or retirement. (In 1617 Alsop issued Q4 of A Looking Glass and Q2 of The Famous Victories, with no mention of Creede.)