DEEP: Database of Early English Playbooks

[1623] Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet

Reference Information

DEEP #: 236
Greg #: 143e(*)
STC/Wing #: 22325
Record Type: Single-Play Playbook
Play Type: Adult Professional
Genre (Annals): Tragedy
 
Book Edition: 4
Play Edition: 4
Format: Quarto
Leaves: 44
Date of First Publication: 1597
Date of First Production: 1595 [1594-1596]
Company of First Production: Lord Chamberlain's (Hunsdon's) Men
Company Attribution: King's Men
 
Total Editions: 5 quartos, 2 folios in collection
 
Variants: The title page exists in two states: Greg 143e(*) does not list an author, while Greg 143e(†) names Shakespeare as author. See also Greg 143e(†)

Title-Page Features

Title: THE MOST EXCELLENT And Lamentable Tragedie, of ROMEO and IVLIET. ... Newly Corrected, augmented, and amended.
Author:
Performance: As it hath beene sundrie times publikely Acted, by the KINGS Maiesties Seruants at the GLOBE.
Imprint: LONDON, Printed for Iohn Smethwicke, and are to bee sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstones Church-yard, in Fleetestreete vnder the Dyall.

Paratextual Material

None

Stationer Information

Printer: Stansby, William
Publisher: Smethwick, John
Imprint Location: W.9 (Fleet St. - St. Dunstan's Church / Clifford's Inn)
Entries in Stationers' Register: Jan 22, 1607: Transferred from Cuthbert Burby to Nicholas Ling: "Romeo & Iuliett."
Nov 19, 1607: Transferred from Nicholas Ling to John Smethwick: "Romeo and Iulett".
Aug 24, 1642: Transferred from John Smethwick decd. to Francis Smethwick: "salvo iure cuiuscunque ... Romeo & Iuliett."
Sep 14, 1642: Transferred from Francis Smethwick to Miles Flesher: "Romeo & Iuliett".
 
Additional Notes: STC dates this book to 1622, but R. Carter Hailey, in "The Dating Game: New Evidence for the Dates of Q4 Romeo and Juliet and Q4 Hamlet," Shakespeare Quarterly 58 (2007): 367-87, has recently argued this quarto should be dated to 1623. William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion dates the first production to 1595; Annals dates it to 1596 [1594-1596].