The Introduction explains why the early modern history play needs to be reappraised through an examination of publishers and the publication process. It opens by considering the problems of author-centric approaches that tend to discuss Shakespeare’s English histories to the exclusion of other plays, dramatists, and agents of production. It shows how ideas of ‘history’ and performed ‘histories’ were defined, debated, and interpreted during the period. This evidence demands an approach to the history play that is alert to the participation of different individuals in constructing the genre. The second half of the Introduction directs attention towards the transmission of plays from stage to page and proposes that publication agents have actively controlled and shaped the printed history play through two interlinked agendas, which feature throughout the book: strategies of selection (seen through print contexts) and strategies of presentation (seen through print paratexts). Finally, the Introduction considers the origins of these print strategies in non-commercial and pre-playhouse drama and offers a short case study on the Inns of Court play Gorboduc.

Tracks Shakespeare's emergence as a print author, noting that his first publications were a pair of narrative poems which, though intended primarily to secure aristocratic patronage, proved to be singularly successful commercially. The earliest publication history of Shakespeare's individual plays is mapped in detail, with particular attention being given to the career of Thomas Millington, who, in effect, provided 'proof of concept' that Shakespeare publishing was a worthwhile venture. Andrew Wise's subsequent success in publishing Shakespeare titles is also noted. The fact that the plays were, initially, published anonymously is registered, as is the fact that many of the earliest editions offered significantly attenuated texts. Some speculation is offered as to the derivation of these shortened texts. The chapter notes that, by the end of the first decade of the seventeenth century, Shakespeare was well established as a recognised print author as well as a successful playwright.

The mid to late seventeenth century is usually considered as representing an almost total lack of Sonnet appreciation, often blamed on John Benson’s 1640 volume, Poems, which disrupted the sequence, interwove it with lyrics from The Passionate Pilgrim, and joined Sonnets together into larger units. This chapter explores how the Sonnets thrived in Caroline manuscripts (particularly Sonnets 2 and 106), and the ways in which Benson tried to harness this elite status for Cavalier readers, and make amends for the Sonnets’ omission from the First Folio. The chapter re-examines the ways in which Sir John Suckling and John Milton read the Sonnets, and argues for their sustained Royalist associations.