Humphrey Moseley
Humphrey Moseley | |
|---|---|
| Died | Error: Need valid birth date (second date): year, month, day London, England |
| Occupation(s) | Publisher, bookseller |
| Years active | Mid-1600s |
| Known for | Publishing Beaumont and Fletcher folio (1647), registering plays attributed to Shakespeare |
Humphrey Moseley (deceased 31 January 1661) was a prominent publisher and bookseller based in London during the mid-1600s.
Life
Believed to be the offspring of the publisher Samuel Moseley, Humphrey Moseley attained the status of "freeman" within the Stationers Company on 7 May 1627. He was appointed Warden on 7 July 1659; however, he seemingly did not participate in Court of Assistants meetings, likely due to deteriorating health. His retail establishment was located at the Prince's Arms in St Paul's Churchyard. Moseley was notably prolific, with his imprint appearing on 314 extant publications.
Drama and poetry
Moseley is chiefly remembered for issuing the inaugural Beaumont and Fletcher folio in 1647, a venture undertaken jointly with stationer Humphrey Robinson. His partnerships also included Nicholas Fussell (until 1635) and Francis Constable. He published significant works by Jacobean and Caroline dramatists such as Thomas Middleton, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, Richard Brome, and Sir William D'Avenant. Throughout the Commonwealth period, Moseley emerged as the dominant figure in drama publishing, releasing more plays than any competitor.
Throughout the 1640s and 1650s, Moseley led the market for English poetry collections by individual authors, notably publishing John Milton's Poems (1645), alongside works by John Donne, Edmund Waller, Richard Crashaw, Abraham Cowley, Henry Vaughan, and Sir John Suckling. The majority of poets and playwrights under his imprint were Royalist supporters, mirroring Moseley’s own Royalist sympathies despite his publication of Puritan Milton.
During the Puritan-imposed theatre closures (1642–60), Moseley accumulated an extensive archive of dramatic manuscripts intended for eventual publication. His passing at the dawn of the English Restoration halted these plans. Some of these manuscripts later came into the possession of antiquarian John Warburton, only to be destroyed when his cook repurposed them as scrap paper.
Other works
Moseley’s catalog also included publications by renowned alchemists like Robert Fludd, as well as works authored by Sir Francis Bacon. Notably, he published music composed by René Descartes. His diverse offerings extended to general-interest titles such as Thomas Barker’s The Art of Angling (1659). Embracing a developing trend, Moseley compiled catalogues of his publications, listing 135 titles in the 1653 edition of Five New Plays by Richard Brome and 180 titles in the 1654 edition of Sir Aston Cockayne’s Dianea.
Shakespeare
Moseley is distinguished for both his discerning publication choices and his relevance to Shakespeare studies owing to two entries he recorded in the Stationers' Register. On 9 September 1653, he registered Cardenio, attributed to co-authors William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, alongside plays titled Henry I and Henry II, credited to Shakespeare and Robert Davenport. Later, on 29 June 1660, he registered three additional plays—The History of King Stephen, Duke Humphrey, a Tragedy, and Iphis and Iantha, or A Marriage Without a Man, a Comedy—all ascribed to Shakespeare. While most academics dispute these attributions, the registration of Cardenio and its associated work Double Falshood have received some scholarly acceptance.
Post mortem
In his will, Moseley appointed his wife Anne Moseley and their daughter Anne as executrices, who then managed the business following his passing. Employees Henry Penton and John Langford were each granted £5, contingent upon their continued employment. Upon the widow's eventual decision to dissolve the company, numerous copyrights were purchased by Henry Herringman, who emerged as a prominent publisher succeeding Moseley in that period.
See also
- Robert Allot
- William Aspley
- Edward Blount
- Philip Chetwinde
- Thomas Cotes
- Crooke and Cooke
- Richard Field
- Richard Hawkins
- William Jaggard
- Richard Meighen
- John Smethwick
References
- Halliday, F. E. A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964. Baltimore, Penguin, 1964.
- Holland, Peter, ed. King Lear and Its Afterlife. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- Plomer, Henry Robert. A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers Who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667. London, The Bibliographical Society/Blades, East & Blades, 1907.
- Wright, Louis B. "The Reading of Plays during the Puritan Revolution," Huntington Library Bulletin no. 6 (November 1934), pp. 73–108.