Thomas Pavier (died 1625) was a London publisher and bookseller of the early seventeenth century. His complex involvement in the publication of early editions of some ofShakespeare's plays, as well as plays of theShakespeare Apocrypha, has left him with a "dubious reputation."[1]
Pavier came to the business of publishing in an unusual way: instead of serving the normal apprenticeship in theStationers Company, he was one of several young men who transferred to the Stationers from theDrapers Company on 3 June 1600. Pavier had served an apprenticeship underWilliam Barley, a draper who doubled as a bookseller. Pavier was able to set himself up in business that year; his shop was located at the sign of the Cat and Parrots, "over against Pope's Head Alley" inCornhill.[2] Early in his career Pavier was found guilty of various misdemeanours by the Court of Stationers.[3] One conviction was 'for printing certain books and ballads without a licence' or 'without authority or entrance' in theStationers' Register.[3] Along with William Barley, his brother Roger and printer Simon Stafford he was also accused of illegally printing a Latin grammar manual.[3] Four thousand copies of the book were discovered in Roger's home and confiscated by members of the Stationers' Company.[3] In June 1598 Pavier backed Stafford in an attempt to prosecuteCuthbert Burby for riot who, along with others, had been acting for the Stationers' Company.[3] The complaint was dismissed by the Stationers' Court and the four men found themselves incarcerated inFleet Prison over the affair.[3]
Over the course of his quarter-century career, Pavier grew rich by publishing popular works ofPuritan literature in multiple editions.[4] At the start of his career, however, he worked at the lower end of the prestige scale in printed matter in his era: he primarily publishedballads,chapbooks, pamphlets, and playbooks. One of his earliest products in the ballad line wasThe Fair Widow of Watling Street and Her Three Daughters (c. 1600). He followed this with many comparable works, with titles likeThe Lamentable Murthers of Sir John Fitz (1605),A Cruel Murther in Worcestershire (1605),The Fire in Shoreditch (1606),The Traitors' Downfall (1606),The Shepherd's Lamentation (1612), andThe Burning of Tyverton (1612). He also published ballads byThomas Deloney andSamuel Rowlands.
Pavier's firm prospered and he eventually rose to be his guild's Junior Warden in 1622, but Pavier never abandoned ballads. In the years 1612–20, when the Stationers Company limited ballad printing to only five of its members, Pavier was one of the five. In 1624 he was a member of the "Ballad Stock," a syndicate of stationers dedicated to the production of ballads in print.
One of Pavier's earliest acts as a stationer was to enter the popular though anonymous playCaptain Thomas Stukeley into theStationers' Register on 11 August1600 (though the earliest edition now known was Pavier's of1605). He published several other plays, including the anonymousThe Fair Maid of Bristow (1605), andThe First Part of Hieronimo (1605), the anonymous "prequel" toThomas Kyd'sThe Spanish Tragedy. Pavier also published editions of Kyd's play: he obtained the rights toThe Spanish Tragedy on 14 August 1600 and issued the fourth edition in1602. He published the thirdquarto ofA Looking Glass for London, byThomas Lodge andRobert Greene, also in 1602, and the second quarto of the anonymousJack Straw in1604.[5]
Thomas Pavier is best remembered for his editions of Shakespearean plays, and plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha:[6][7]
Most controversially, Pavier was somehow involved withWilliam Jaggard in the crypticFalse Folio affair of 1619, which involved the publication of ten Shakespearean and pseudo-Shakespearean plays in quarto editions, some with falsified title pages. The early versions of2 and3 Henry VI were printed in one volume, titledThe Whole Contention Between the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster. This volume and four others –Henry V,Sir John Oldcastle,A Yorkshire Tragedy, andPericles, Prince of Tyre – were issued with the initials "T. P." on their title pages. The only complete extant copy of the False Folio resides at theFolger Shakespeare Library inWashington, D.C.
Among the many points about the False Folio that are uncertain and obscure is Pavier's precise role in the matter. Pavier was a business associate of Jaggard; but the real nature of his connection is debated by scholars.[8] Some modern commentators argue that Pavier's role in the matter may have been more substantive than Jaggard's, and call the disputed texts the "Pavier quartos." In any event, Shakespeare scholars would come to refer to Pavier as a 'notorious piratical publisher'.[3]
Pavier had other, minor links with the Shakespeare canon. When Thomas Millington transferred his rights to2 and3 Henry VI in 1602, Millington's copyright toTitus Andronicus was included in the deal. Pavier, however, did not publish an edition of that play; the next, third edition of1611 was issued by another bookseller, Edward White.
In 1608, Pavier published a volume titledThe History of Hamblet. This featured the Hamlet story as recorded in Shakespeare's sources, theHistoria Danica ofSaxo Grammaticus and theHistoires Tragiques ofFrançois de Belleforest. The book was likely published to capitalize on the popularity of Shakespeare's play.
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