Walter Burre
Encyclopedia
Walter Burre was a London bookseller and publisher of the Elizabethan
and Jacobean
eras, best remembered for publishing several key texts in English Renaissance drama
.
Burre was made a "freeman" of the Stationers Company
— meaning that he became a full-fledged member of the London guild of booksellers — in 1596. From 1597 to 1622 he did business in a sequence of three London shops; the most important was at the sign of the Crane in St. Paul's
Churchyard (1604 and after).
:
Beyond the confines of the Jonson canon, Burre issued a number of other first quartos of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays — Thomas Nashe
's Summer's Last Will and Testament
(1600), Thomas Middleton
's A Mad World, My Masters
(1608
), Thomas Tomkis
's Albumazar
(1615
), George Ruggle's Ignoramus
(also 1615), and perhaps most importantly, Francis Beaumont
's The Knight of the Burning Pestle
(1613
). In the latter volume, Burre wrote the dedicatory letter to Robert Keysar, shareholder and manager of the Queen's Revels Children
, the company of boy actors
that had premiered the play in 1607
; Burre congratulated Keysar on preserving the play after its initial failure, which Burre explained by noting that the audience failed to understand the "privy mark of irony" in the work.
(One scholar, Zachary Lesser, has argued that Burre specialized in publishing plays that had initially failed on the stage. This would certainly apply to Beaumont's play, and to Cynthia's Revels and Catiline.)
; a translation of the Pharsalia
of Lucan
by Sir Arthur Gorges (1614
); and Sir Walter Raleigh
's The History of the World (also 1614). One story, current throughout the seventeenth century, held that when Burre told Raleigh how poorly that book was selling, Raleigh threw the completed second volume of the work into the nearest fire. This story is certainly apocryphal, since The History of the World in fact sold well, going through three editions in its first three years in print.
and the East India Company, and published many volumes on exploration and related sublects, including some involving the early Pilgrims
. When the East India Company's second voyage to the East returned to London in May 1606, Burre issued the anonymously-authored account of the trip, The Last East-India Voyage, within a month. (Burre was the brother-in-law of Sir Henry Middleton, commander of the venture.) Burre similarly published the first law books of the Jamestown colony
for the Virginia Company, along with a series of books on surveying, trade, and tobacco growing. (He published An Advice How to Plant Tobacco in England in 1615 — which somehow failed to lead to a thriving tobacco agriculture in the British Isles.)
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, best remembered for publishing several key texts 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...
.
Burre was made a "freeman" 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...
— meaning that he became a full-fledged member of the London guild of booksellers — in 1596. From 1597 to 1622 he did business in a sequence of three London shops; the most important was at the sign of the Crane in St. Paul's
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
Churchyard (1604 and after).
Drama and Literature
In the span of a decade, Burre published the first editions of four plays by Ben JonsonBen 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...
:
- Every Man in His HumourEvery Man in His HumourEvery Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:...
, 16011601 in literatureThe year 1601 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - The Lord Chamberlain's Men stage a performance of Shakespeare's Richard II at the Globe Theatre. The performance is specially commissioned by the plotters in the Earl of Essex's rebellion of the following day... - Cynthia's RevelsCynthia's RevelsCynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, The play was one element in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres between Jonson and rival playrwights John Marston and Thomas Dekker.-Performance:The play was first performed...
, 1601 - The AlchemistThe Alchemist (play)The Alchemist is a comedy by English playwright Ben Jonson. First performed in 1610 by the King's Men, it is generally considered Jonson's best and most characteristic comedy; Samuel Taylor Coleridge claimed that it had one of the three most perfect plots in literature...
, 16101610 in literatureThe year 1610 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Thomas Bodley makes an agreement with the Stationers' Company of London to put a copy of every book registered with them into his new Bodleian.-New books:... - Catiline: His Conspiracy, 16111611 in literatureThe year 1611 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 1 - Oberon, the Faery Prince, a masque written by Ben Jonson and designed by Inigo Jones, is performed at Whitehall Palace....
.
Beyond the confines of the Jonson canon, Burre issued a number of other first quartos of Elizabethan and Jacobean plays — Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe
Thomas Nashe was an English Elizabethan pamphleteer, playwright, poet and satirist. He was the son of the minister William Nashe and his wife Margaret .-Early life:...
's Summer's Last Will and Testament
Summer's Last Will and Testament
Summer's Last Will and Testament is an Elizabethan era stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Nashe. Nashe's sole extant drama, it broke new ground in the development of English Renaissance drama: "No earlier English comedy has anything like the intellectual content or the social relevance that it...
(1600), 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...
's A Mad World, My Masters
A Mad World, My Masters
A Mad World, My Masters is a Jacobean stage play written by Thomas Middleton, a comedy first performed around 1605 and first published in 1608....
(1608
1608 in literature
The year 1608 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*January 10 - Ben Jonson's The Masque of Beauty is performed by Queen Anne and her retinue at the Banqueting House, Whitehall, a sequel to The Masque of Blackness....
), Thomas Tomkis
Thomas Tomkis
Thomas Tomkis was an English playwright of the late Elizabethan and the Jacobean eras, and arguably one of the more cryptic figures of English Renaissance drama....
's Albumazar
Albumazar (play)
Albumazar is a Jacobean era play, a comedy written by Thomas Tomkis that was performed and published in 1615.-Productions:The play was specially commissioned by Trinity College, Cambridge to entertain King James I during his 1615 visit to the University...
(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....
), George Ruggle's Ignoramus
Ignoramus (drama)
Ignoramus is a college farce, a 1615 academic play by George Ruggle. Written in Latin , it was arguably the most famous and influential academic play of English Renaissance drama...
(also 1615), and perhaps most importantly, Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont
Francis Beaumont was a dramatist in the English Renaissance theatre, most famous for his collaborations with John Fletcher....
's The Knight of the Burning Pestle
The Knight of the Burning Pestle
The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play by Francis Beaumont, first performed in 1607 and first published in a quarto in 1613. It is notable as the first whole parody play in English...
(1613
1613 in literature
The year 1613 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*English poet Francis Quarles becomes cupbearer to Princess Elizabeth....
). In the latter volume, Burre wrote the dedicatory letter to Robert Keysar, shareholder and manager of the Queen's Revels Children
Children of the Chapel
The Children of the Chapel were the boys with unbroken voices, choristers, who formed part of the Chapel Royal, the body of singers and priests serving the spiritual needs of their sovereign wherever they were called upon to do so....
, the company of boy actors
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...
that had premiered the play in 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....
; Burre congratulated Keysar on preserving the play after its initial failure, which Burre explained by noting that the audience failed to understand the "privy mark of irony" in the work.
(One scholar, Zachary Lesser, has argued that Burre specialized in publishing plays that had initially failed on the stage. This would certainly apply to Beaumont's play, and to Cynthia's Revels and Catiline.)
Other works
Burre published works of non-dramatic literature too: Pseudo-Martyr (1610), the first printed work of John DonneJohn Donne
John Donne 31 March 1631), English poet, satirist, lawyer, and priest, is now considered the preeminent representative of the metaphysical poets. His works are notable for their strong and sensual style and include sonnets, love poetry, religious poems, Latin translations, epigrams, elegies, songs,...
; a translation of the Pharsalia
Pharsalia
The Pharsalia is a Roman epic poem by the poet Lucan, telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great...
of Lucan
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus
Marcus Annaeus Lucanus , better known in English as Lucan, was a Roman poet, born in Corduba , in the Hispania Baetica. Despite his short life, he is regarded as one of the outstanding figures of the Imperial Latin period...
by Sir Arthur Gorges (1614
1614 in literature
The year 1614 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Sir Francis Bacon's dual role as MP and attorney-general is objected to by Parliament.*Izaak Walton owns an ironmonger's shop in Fleet Street, London.*Lope de Vega becomes a priest....
); and Sir Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh
Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularising tobacco in England....
's The History of the World (also 1614). One story, current throughout the seventeenth century, held that when Burre told Raleigh how poorly that book was selling, Raleigh threw the completed second volume of the work into the nearest fire. This story is certainly apocryphal, since The History of the World in fact sold well, going through three editions in its first three years in print.
Exploration
Burre's link with Raleigh was not an anomaly: Burre was well-connected with both the Virginia CompanyLondon Company
The London Company was an English joint stock company established by royal charter by James I of England on April 10, 1606 with the purpose of establishing colonial settlements in North America.The territory granted to the London Company included the coast of North America from the 34th parallel ...
and the East India Company, and published many volumes on exploration and related sublects, including some involving the early Pilgrims
Pilgrims
Pilgrims , or Pilgrim Fathers , is a name commonly applied to early settlers of the Plymouth Colony in present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, United States...
. When the East India Company's second voyage to the East returned to London in May 1606, Burre issued the anonymously-authored account of the trip, The Last East-India Voyage, within a month. (Burre was the brother-in-law of Sir Henry Middleton, commander of the venture.) Burre similarly published the first law books of the Jamestown colony
Jamestown, Virginia
Jamestown was a settlement in the Colony of Virginia. Established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 14, 1607 , it was the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States, following several earlier failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke...
for the Virginia Company, along with a series of books on surveying, trade, and tobacco growing. (He published An Advice How to Plant Tobacco in England in 1615 — which somehow failed to lead to a thriving tobacco agriculture in the British Isles.)
Miscellaneous
Burre also published a wide variety of books on many subjects, works now almost entirely forgotten, ranging from Thomas Wright's The Passions of the Mind in General (1601, 1604) to T. Culpeper's A Tract Against Usury (1621).See also
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