Valentine Simmes
Valentine Simmes (fl. 1585 – 1622) 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. [See: Early texts of Shakespeare's works.]
Nothing is known of Simmes's early life or personal history. He was active as a printer starting in 1585.
Shakespeare
In an eight-year period from 1597 through 1604, Simmes printed nine Shakespearean quartos for various London stationers or booksellers.
For the bookseller Andrew Wise, Simmes printed:
- Richard III, Q1 (1597)
- Richard II, Q1 (1597)
- Richard II, Q2 (1598)
- Richard II, Q3 (1598)
For Wise and William Aspley, Simmes printed:
- Henry IV, Part 2, Q (1600)
- Much Ado About Nothing, Q (1600)
For Thomas Millington, Simmes printed:
- Henry VI, Part 2, Q2 (1600)[1]
For Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, Simmes printed:
- Hamlet Q1 (1603) — the "bad quarto".
For Matthew Law, Simmes printed:
- Henry IV, Part 1, Q3 (1604).
Also for
Other drama
Simmes also printed a range of other significant texts in English Renaissance theatre, including:[4]
- Day's An Humorous Day's Mirth (1599)
- Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday(1600)
- Doctor Faustus(1604), for publisher Thomas Bushell
- Jonson's The Coronation Triumph (1604), for Edward Blount
- The Entertainment at Althorp (1604), for Edward Blount
- Marston's The Malcontent(1604), for William Aspley
- Jonson's Hymenaei (1606), for Thomas Thorpe
- The Troublesome Reign of King John (Q2, 1611), for John Helme
— among other works. In Simmes's era, the specialties of printer and bookseller/publisher were usually practised separately, though some individuals, like
Other works
Best known for his printing of plays, Simmes worked on non-dramatic projects as well; he printed Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (1611) for the bookseller Richard Bonian – a volume of poems by Emilia Lanier, it was one of the very rare books by a woman published in that era.[5] For John Clapham's The History of Great Britain (1606), he was both printer and publisher.
Reputation
While Simmes is recognized as among the best printers of his generation, a cynic might complain that this is not saying much — that it merely identifies Simmes as the best of a bad lot. Simmes, or his compositors, allowed 69 typographical errors in Richard II, Q1; when they printed Q2 they corrected 14 of these typos, but added 123 new ones.[6]
Apart from his reputation for quality, Simmes "was constantly in trouble for printing unauthorized works, and in 1622 was forbidden to work as a master printer."[7]
Notes
- ^ This Q2 of 2H6 was the early alternative text, The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. Halliday, p. 217.
- ^ Halliday, pp. 483–4.
- ^ Chambers, Vol. 3, pp. 306–7.
- ^ Chambers, Vol. 3, pp. 251, 291, 378, 391, 422; Vol.4, p. 23.
- ^ Grossman, p. 1.
- ^ Halliday, p. 386.
- ^ Halliday, p. 454.
References
- Chambers, E. K.The Elizabethan Stage. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923.
- Ferguson, W. Craig. Valentine Simmes, Stationer: A Bibliographical Study of an Elizabethan Printer and Publisher. Birmingham (UK), 1959; Charlottesville, VA, Bibliographic Society of the University of Virginia, 1968.
- Grossman, Marshall, ed., Aemilia Lanyer: Gender, Genre, and the Canon. Lexington, KY, University Press of Kentucky, 1998
- Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
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