DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks

1605 Jonson, Ben Sejanus His Fall

Reference Information

DEEP #: 401
Greg #: 216a
STC/Wing #: 14782
Record Type: Single-Play Playbook
Play Type: Adult Professional
Genre (Annals): Tragedy
 
Book Edition: 1
Play Edition: 1
Format: Quarto
Leaves: 54
Date of First Publication: 1605
Date of First Production: 1604(?)
Company of First Production: King's Men
Company Attribution: n/a
 
Total Editions: 1 quarto, 2 folios in collection

Title-Page Features

Title: SEIANVS HIS FALL.
Author: Written by BEN. IONSON.
Performance:
Latin Motto: [in single column] MART. Non hîc Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyasq[ue] | Inuenies: Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
Imprint: AT LONDON Printed by G. Elld, for Thomas Thorpe. 1605. [var.: "Ellde"]

Paratextual Material

Commendatory Verses: 8: by "Georgius Chapmannus"; "Hugh Holland"; "Cygnus"; "Th. R."; "Iohannes Marstonius"; "William Strachey"; "Φιλοε"; "Ev. B." [¶2r]
To the Reader: "To the Readers" subscribed "Ben. Ionson" [¶2r]
Argument: "The Argument" [A4r]
Character List: "The names of the Actors" [A4v]

Stationer Information

Printer: Eld, George
Publisher: Thorpe, Thomas
Entries in Stationers' Register: Nov 2, 1604: Entered to Edward Blount: "a booke called the tragedie of Seianus written by Beniamin Iohnson".
Aug 6, 1605: Transferred from Edward Blount to Thomas Thorpe: "the tragedie of Seianus".
Oct 3, 1610: Transferred from Thomas Thorpe to Walter Burre: "2 bookes, thone called, Seianus his fall".
Jul 4, 1635: Transferred from Walter Burre decd. to William Stansby: "by vertue of a noate vnder the hand" of Walter Burre and Matthew Lownes, Warden, "bearing date the 10th of Iune 1621 ... Seianus".
 
Additional Notes: Annals dates the first production of this play to 1603, but Martin Butler supplies a "corrected date" of "1604(?)" ("The Riddle of Jonson's Chronology Revisited," The Library, 7th series, 4 [2003]: 49-63).