Richard Meighen

Richard Meighen
Name	Richard Meighen
Occupation	Publisher
Birth place	London
Death date	1641
Known for	Publication of plays, involvement with the First Folio

Richard Meighen was an English publisher and stationer active in early modern London who played a role in the dissemination of drama during the late Jacobean and Caroline eras. He is noted for publishing quartos and acting in business arrangements connected to major theatrical works associated with William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and other dramatists of the period. His career intersected with institutions such as the Stationers' Company, the Royal Exchange, and the printing houses operating near St Paul's Cathedral.

Early life and background

Meighen was born into the milieu of London trade in the late 16th century and apprenticed within the framework of the Stationers' Company apprenticeship system, which shaped the careers of figures like Edward Blount and William Jaggard. His formative years placed him among peers connected to printers and booksellers such as Thomas Thorpe, John Smethwick, and Robert Allot. The social and commercial networks of Southwark, Fleet Street, and the Royal Exchange provided the infrastructure for his later activities. Meighen’s era overlapped with major events including the reigns of James I and Charles I, the expansion of playhouses such as the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre, and the regulatory practices enforced by the Stationers' Company and the Court of Star Chamber.

Career as a London publisher

Operating from premises in central London, Meighen established himself among booksellers who traded in drama, poetry, and popular literature alongside figures like John Benson, William Stansby, and Nicholas Okes. He worked within a commercial environment dominated by the printers Isaac Jaggard and Thomas Cotes, and collaborated with booksellers including Humphrey Moseley and Andrew Crooke. Meighen’s business was influenced by censorship mechanisms linked to the Master of the Revels and by market demand driven by readerships who frequented venues such as the Royal Exchange and parish churches. His shop interacted with the networks of the Stationers' Company's registers and with legal forms of entry used by contemporaries like John Benson and Humphrey Moseley.

Major publications and editorial practices

Meighen issued quartos and small-format editions comparable to those produced by printers Isaac Iaggard and Thomas Creede, and his catalog included dramatic texts, translations and popular works in the vein of Ben Jonson and John Webster. Editorially, he followed conventions established by earlier publishers such as William Jaggard and Edward Blount, employing practices like title-page attribution, rights assignment recorded with the Stationers' Company, and occasional revision or textual conflation reflective of the period’s fluid copy-text norms. Meighen’s output sat alongside the imprints of John Norton, Felix Kyngston, and Nicholas Ling. His business model resembled that of booksellers who combined retailing at stalls near St Paul's Cathedral with wholesale arrangements used by John Smethwick and Robert Allot.

Role in the First Folio and Shakespearean publishing

Meighen acted as a publisher and rights-holder in the complex trade network surrounding the 1623 publication of the First Folio of William Shakespeare. While the main imprint of the First Folio is associated with Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard, Meighen’s involvement connects him to the web of proprietors—including William Jaggard, Robert Allot, and John Smethwick—who circulated Shakespearean texts in quarto and folio forms. His stationer’s copy rights and business dealings placed him among those who handled playbooks from companies such as the King's Men and theatres like the Globe Theatre. The practices of compiling, registering, and marketing dramatic corpora during the decades after the Folio’s appearance involved actors like John Heminges and Henry Condell as well as booksellers such as Humphrey Moseley and Andrew Crooke.

Business partnerships and legal disputes

Meighen engaged in partnerships and experienced disputes typical of early modern stationers, negotiating with printers including Thomas Cotes and dealing with rival booksellers such as Nicholas Okes and William Stansby. Ownership of proprietary rights recorded with the Stationers' Company sometimes led to litigations reminiscent of cases involving Thomas Walkley or Humphrey Lownes, and Meighen’s commercial decisions were shaped by precedents set in legal encounters before bodies like the Court of Star Chamber and by the enforcement activities of the Master of the Revels. Contracts and transfers of rights among stationers—exemplified by agreements involving Edward Blount, John Smethwick, and Robert Allot—provide context for Meighen’s own transactional record. Competing claims over play texts and rival editions reflected the tensions seen in the careers of contemporaries such as Richard Hawkins and Matthew Walbancke.

Personal life and legacy

Meighen died in 1641, leaving a trade presence absorbed into the continuing operations of the Stationers' Company and the London book market that sustained later figures like Humphrey Moseley and Andrew Crooke. His legacy persists in the history of English Renaissance theatre publishing, entwined with the careers of printers and publishers who shaped the textual transmission of dramatists including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, and Philip Massinger. Archivists and bibliographers drawing on records from the Stationers' Company and the printing registers of London continue to assess Meighen’s role alongside that of Edward Blount, Isaac Jaggard, and other early modern stationers. His career illustrates the commercial and legal frameworks that mediated the circulation of dramatic works during the reigns of James I and Charles I.

Category:Publishers (people)