- description
- # The printer
## Overview
This is a section titled "The printer" extracted from the frontmatter of a digitized text. It provides biographical information about George Eld, the printer of the 1609 edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. The section appears on lines 9288-9306 of the source file [pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA).
## Context
This section is part of the [FACSIMILE OF THE EDITION OF 1609](arke:01KG6S4GWQC7KPJ59BAYCY3HXR) within the larger work. The source PDF was processed as part of the [PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y) collection. It follows the section [Character of his business.](arke:01KG6S5HREBSVPPTK7ESJG7QA1) and precedes [John Wright, bookseller.](arke:01KG6S5HRETFS3Z2KSH30T9PMS).
## Contents
The section focuses on George Eld, the printer of the 1609 edition of Shakespeare's sonnets. It mentions that Eld became a freeman of the Stationers’ Company in 1600 and married a widow in 1604 who had inherited a printing press at the White Horse in Fleet Lane, Old Bailey. Eld was active as a printer and publisher, acquiring seven copyrights in 1607, including *The Puritaine*, a play falsely attributed to W. S. to suggest Shakespeare. The section also briefly mentions William Aspley, the bookseller involved in producing the 1609 edition.
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- The printer
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- The printer
George Eld.
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32
SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE
Bryskett, the friend of Spenser and Sidney. One-half of the edition bore the imprint, ‘London for Edward Blount,’ and the other half, ‘London for W. Aspley.’
Thorpe’s printer, Eld, and his bookseller, Aspley, were in well-established positions in the trade. George Eld, who had taken up his freedom of the Stationers’ Company on January 13, 1600, married in 1604 a widow who had already lost in rapid succession two husbands—both master-printers. The printing-press, with the office at the White Horse, in Fleet Lane, Old Bailey, which she inherited from her first husband Gabriel Simson (d. 1600), she had handed over next year to her second husband Richard Read (d. 1604). On Read’s death in 1604, she straightway married Eld and her press passed to Eld. In 1607 and subsequent years Eld was very busy both as printer and publisher. Among seven copyrights which he acquired in 1607 was that of the play called *The Puritaine*, which he published with a title-page fraudulently assigning it to W. S.—initials which were clearly intended to suggest Shakespeare’s name to the unwary.
William Aspley the bookseller.
Aspley, the most interesting of the three men engaged in producing Thorpe’s venture, was the son of a clergyman of Royston, Cambridgeshire. After serving an apprenticeship with George Bishop, he was admitted a freeman on April 11, 1597. He never owned a press, but held in course of time the highest offices in the Company’s gift, finally dying during the year of his mastership in 1640. His first shop was at the sign of the Tiger’s Head in St. Paul’s Churchyard, where Thorpe carried on business temporarily a few years later, but in 1603 he succeeded Felix Norton in the more important premises at the sign of the Parrot in the same locality. It was
¹ There are two copies in the British Museum with the two different imprints.
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SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 33
- title
- The printer