George Eld (died 1624) was a London printer of theJacobean era, who produced important works ofEnglish Renaissance drama and literature, including key texts byWilliam Shakespeare,Ben Jonson,Christopher Marlowe, andThomas Middleton.
Eld was the son of a carpenter fromDerbyshire. He served an eight-year apprenticeship to bookseller Robert Bolton, starting in 1592, and became a "freeman" (a full member) of theStationers Company on 13 January 1600. He established himself in his own printing business in 1604, at the sign of the White Horse in Fleet Lane, by marrying the widow of not one but two master printers.[1] His shop featured two or perhaps three presses, and four compositors – a substantial operation for the time. Eld entered into a partnership with Miles Fletcher in 1617; Fletcher took over the business after Eld died ofplague in 1624.[2]
In Eld's historical era, most stationers concentrated on either printing or bookselling; and most publishing was done by the booksellers, who commissioned the printers to print their works. Eld was primarily a printer during his career, working on specific projects for specific booksellers.
In his two-decade career, Eld printed a wide variety of works; when the printer is identified on title pages only with initials, researchers have used Eld's characteristic title-page device, "two volutes with foliage," for supporting evidence. He is the "G. E." who printedWilliam Camden'sRemains of a Greater Work (1605) for Simon Waterson,John Selden'sThe Duello (1610) for John Helme, and Peter Gosselin'sThe State Mysteries of the Jesuits (1623) for Nicholas Bourne.
Eld worked regularly forThomas Thorpe; the two produced more than twenty titles together. These included thefirst quartos of Jonson'sSejanus (1605),Volpone (1606), andThe Masque of Blackness andThe Masque of Beauty (in one volume, 1608). They also issuedJohn Marston'sWhat You Will (1607), andGeorge Chapman'sAll Fools (1605) andThe Conspiracy and Tragedy of Charles, Duke of Byron (1608).[3]
Thorpe and Eld were also involved in two "dubious publishing enterprises" – one, a failed attempt to print a work to which they did not have the rights, and the other, a successful such attempt of some work byThomas Coryat.[4]
Thorpe and Eld's most significant project was the 1609 first edition ofShakespeare's Sonnets. In 1612, Thorpe and Eld also issued a work of modern Shakespearean controversy, theFuneral Elegy thatDonald Foster proposed as a work by Shakespeare,[5] without convincing most scholars and critics.[6]
More Shakespeare: Eld printed the 1609 quarto ofTroilus and Cressida, for Richard Bonian and Henry Walley. Some critics have complained that the text in this volume is so poor that it should be classed as a "bad quarto;" how much blame for this should fall on Eld, and how much is due to a faulty manuscript source that Eld had to work with, is open to question. (Eld'sSejanus text, in contrast, is excellently printed.) Eld has also been identified as the printer ofJohn Smethwick's third quarto ofHamlet (1611 in literature).[7]
Eld also printed the 1609second quarto of Marlowe'sDoctor Faustus for John Wright. And forWilliam Aspley, he printed one of the most controversial plays of the period,Eastward Ho (three editions, 1605).
Eld printed first editions of a range of other texts in Jacobean drama:[8]
Like some printers of his generation –Richard Field is a good example – Eld also published work on his own authority. He was active in drama here too:
Eld published beyond the confines of Jacobean drama as well, with works likeJohn Healey's 1610 translation ofThe City of God bySt. Augustine. (That volume bore a dedication toWilliam Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, signed by Thorpe.) In 1622 he issued a volume of satires byJohn Taylor the Water Poet calledThe Water Cormorant His Complaint. He published the types of religious books that were so common in his era, like BishopGervase Babington'sWorks, Containing Comfortable Notes on the Five Books of Moses (1615). And inevitably, Eld published and printed many now-obscure works by forgotten authors. The title page of his 1606 edition of Robert Pricket'sTime's Anatomy bears the inscription "to be sold by John Hodgets" – another demonstration of the printer/publisher's need for a retail outlet for his products.
In 1607, Eld printed and publishedEdward Grimeston'sA General Inventory of the History of France, the book that provided Chapman source material for his tragedies on then-recent French history (including the Byron plays cited above). Eld followed this with several other large histories by Grimeston, partnering with fellow stationers Adam Islip, M. Flesher, andWilliam Stansby:A General History of the Netherlands (A. Islip and G. Eld, 1609),The General History of Spain (A. Islip and G. Eld, 1612),The General History of the Magnificent State of Venice (G. Eld and W. Stansby, 1612), andA General History of France (G. Eld and M. Flesher, 1624).
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