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![[ illustration ]](sonnets_woodcut.jpg) SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS Never before Imprinted. AT LONDON By G. Eld for T.T. and are to be sold by William Aspley. 1609. |
The original Sonnets title page is arranged as shown at left. The illustration at the top is a facsimile of the original, a rather interesting and intricate woodcut. (Facsimiles of all the original pages can be found on the Internet Shakespeare Editions website.) The hyphen in the name "Shakespeare" is of no particular significance. The hyphen was probably used merely to indicate correct pronunciation, in the days when many people would not have known the pronunciation. Without the hyphen, the name could be seen as "Shakes-peare," which would be wrong. "Never before Imprinted" means that it's a first edition, not a reprint. T. T. is Thomas Thorpe, again, the publisher, the same man who wrote the dedication. G. Eld is George Eld, the printer. He was a known, active printer, who printed the quartos of the Shakespeare play Troilus and Cressida, in addition to the Sonnets. He printed some twenty or more books for Thorpe, and many more for other publishers. William Aspley was a bookseller and publisher who had his shop in St. Paul's Churchyard, also called St. Paul's Cross Churchyard. It has been speculated by some that the Sonnets publication was a "pirate" (unauthorized) publication, but there is no good reason to imagine that. While William Shakespeare may not have been personally involved in the publication, he probably did not own the Sonnets at the time they were published. He had probably sold them to Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke. Then, if she desired to have them printed, she would have had every right to do so. Shakespeare was, of course, a professional writer, i.e. he wrote to sell. |
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