- description
- # The Publication of the Sonnets
## Overview
This section, titled "The publication of the sonnets," is a textual segment extracted from a larger document. It details aspects of the printing and distribution of Shakespeare's sonnets, focusing on the role of the publisher Thomas Thorpe. The segment is part of a collection related to a facsimile of the 1609 edition of the sonnets.
## Context
This section is contained within the [FACSIMILE OF THE EDITION OF 1609](arke:01KG6S4GWQC7KPJ59BAYCY3HXR) and was extracted from the file [pdf-01KG6Q7Q25RHMFT3SJXPV18VFF.txt](arke:01KG6S2X2EBB305ENM00G16GWA), which is part of the [PDF Workflow Main Test 2026-01-30T00:26:53](arke:01KG6NWQ2H2K4PGG7H4ZHYCZ3Y) collection. It follows the section titled "[III. The sonnets in private circulation.](arke:01KG6S5HR8AY1MW5SZ0NY4P5YS)" and precedes the section titled "[Thorpe’s early life.](arke:01KG6S5HRBWPK4X3NMFCJHG48H)".
## Contents
The text discusses the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets, drawing parallels to the earlier publication of "The Passionate Pilgrim." It introduces Thomas Thorpe, a printer and stationer who operated in London for approximately thirty years. The narrative highlights Thorpe's acquisition of a manuscript of Marlowe's translation of "Lucan" and his collaboration with Edward Blount and Peter Short for its printing and sale. The section also mentions Thorpe's choice of Blount as the patron for the dedicatory epistle.
- description_generated_at
- 2026-01-30T06:26:11.516Z
- description_model
- gemini-2.5-flash-lite
- description_title
- The Publication of the Sonnets
- end_line
- 9259
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-30T06:24:08.806Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 9247
- text
- The publication of the sonnets.
<!-- [Page 440](arke:01KG6QHPGC9FM7TP8PSWTJH45V) -->
SONNETS OF SHAKESPEARE 29
of the manner in which they reached the printing-press or to a right apprehension of the order in which they were presented to the reading public. The story has many points of resemblance with that of William Jaggard’s publication of *The Passionate Pilgrim* in 1599.
Thorpe, a native of Barnet in Middlesex, where his father kept an inn, was at Midsummer, 1584, apprenticed for nine years to an old-established London printer and stationer, Richard Watkins, whose business premises were at the sign of Love and Death in St. Paul’s Churchyard. Nearly ten years later he took up the freedom of the Stationers’ Company. He seems to have become a stationer’s assistant. Fortune rarely favoured him, and he held his own with difficulty for some thirty years in the lowest ranks of the London publishing trade.
In 1600 there fell into his hands a ‘private’ written copy of Marlowe’s unprinted translation of the first book of *Lucan*. Thorpe, who was not destitute of a taste for literature—he knew scraps of Latin and recognized a good MS. when he saw one—interested in his find Edward Blount¹, then a stationer’s assistant like himself, but with better prospects. Through Blount’s good offices, Peter Short printed Thorpe’s MS. of Marlowe’s *Lucan*, and Walter Burre sold it at his shop in St. Paul’s Churchyard.
As owner of the MS., Thorpe chose his patron and supplied the dedicatory epistle. The patron of his choice was his friend Blount. The style of the dedication was somewhat flamboyant, but Thorpe showed a literary sense
- title
- The publication of the sonnets.