and if the book was already endorsed as allowable by a corrector, the warden would add his own endorsement, and it was then open to the stationer to take the book to the clerk, show the 'hands', pay the fee if it was still outstanding, and get the formalities completed by registration.[1] If, however, the warden found no endorsement by a corrector on the copy, then there were three courses open to him. He might take the risk of passing an obviously harmless book on his own responsibility. He might refuse his 'hand' until the stationer had got that of the corrector. Or he might make a qualified endorsement, which the clerk would note in the register, sanctioning publication so far as copyright was concerned, but only upon condition that proper authority should first be obtained. The dates on the title-pages of plays, when compared with those of the entries, suggest that, as would indeed be natural, the procedure was completed before publication; not necessarily before printing, as the endorsements were sometimes on printed copies.[2] Several cases of re-entry after a considerable interval may indicate that copyright lapsed unless it was exercised within a reasonable time. As a rule, a play appeared within a year or so after it was entered, and was either printed or published by the stationer who had entered it, or by some other to whom he is known, or may plausibly be supposed, to have transferred his interest. Where a considerable interval exists between the date of an entry and that of the first known print, it is sometimes possible that an earlier print has been lost.[3]
- [Footnote: *punctum in plena curia'; 514, 'so yat he first gett yt to be laufully and
orderly alowed as tollerable to be printed and doo shewe thaucthoritie thereof at a Court to be holden'; 576, 'Cancelled out of the book, for the vndecentnes of it in diuerse verses'; iii. 82, 'Entred . . . in full court . . . vppon condicon that yt be no other mans copie, and that . . . he procure it to be aucthorised and then doo shew it at the hall to the master and wardens so aucthorised'.]*
- ↑ The register indicates that even at the time of entry the fee sometimes remained unpaid. But probably it had to be paid before the stationer could actually publish with full security of copyright.
- ↑ Cf. p. 173.
- ↑ I note twenty-two cases (1586-1616) in which the earliest print known falls in a calendar year later than the next after that of entry: Spanish Tragedy, 1592-4 (N.D. probably earlier); Soliman and Perseda, 1592-9 (N. D. probably earlier); James IV, 1594-8; Famous Victories, 1594-8; David and Bethsabe, 1594-9; King Leire, 1594-1605 (re-entry 1605); Four Prentices, 1594-1615 (one or more earlier editions probable); Jew of Malta, 1594-1633 (re-entry 1632); Woman in the Moon, 1595-7; George a Greene, 1595-9; Merchant of Venice, 1598-1600 (conditional entry); Alarum for London, 1600-2 (conditional entry); Patient Grissell, 1600-3 (stayed by Admiral's); Stukeley, 1600-5; Dr. Faustus, 1601-4; Englishmen
