A King and No King (1619) / Walkley / Sir Henry Neville

Topic: A King and No King (1619) and the Dedication to Sir Henry Neville the Younger

1. Verified Sourced Facts

The 1619 quarto of A King and No King by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher is an important publication-world document in the Neville project because it was printed for Thomas Walkley with a dedication to Sir Henry Nevill. In context, that dedicatee is generally understood to be Henry Neville's son, not the elder Sir Henry Neville who died in July 1615.

The value of the document is not that it proves anything about Shakespeare by itself. Its value is narrower and firmer: it places the Neville family directly inside the circulation of a theatrical manuscript in 1619 and places Thomas Walkley, later the publisher of the 1622 quarto of Othello, in documented connection with the Neville household.

This topic also matters because Zachary Lesser's 2002 article directly argues that Sir Henry Neville stood at the center of the play's early political meaning and that Neville was apparently the original owner of the manuscript from which Thomas Walkley printed the 1619 edition. That article is a major secondary source for this topic and is available locally in the Neville Book folder.

2. Ken Feinstein Twitter and Blog Information

• No Ken Feinstein Twitter/blog material is isolated in this packet at present.

3. Why It Matters

• This is primarily a publication/bibliography topic.
• It is also relevant to Neville family manuscript custody.
• It helps map the Walkley -> 1619 theatrical publication -> 1622 Othello Q1 corridor.
• It is one of the clearest post-1615 documents tying the Neville family to the movement of dramatic copy.

4. Core Facts

• Documented: A 1619 quarto of A King and No King exists with Thomas Walkley as bookseller/publisher-facing figure and a dedication to Sir Henry Nevill.
• Documented: The Folger Early Modern English Drama page for A King and No King independently identifies the dedication as an "Epistle to: Henry Neville, Knight (d. 1629); from: Thomas Walkley [A2r]." This is a high-quality external control supporting the identification of the dedicatee as the younger Sir Henry Neville.
• Documented: The same Folger EMED record gives first performance as 1611, first printed as 1619, STC 1670, ESTC S101159, printer John Beale, publisher Thomas Walkley, format quarto, title-page theatre Globe, and company King's Men.
• Documented: Bibliographic records for the 1619 quarto note a Stationers' Register entry to E. Blount on 7 August 1618.
• Documented: The 1619 witness is available in a Boston Public Library scan on Internet Archive.
• Documented: The dedication explicitly says Walkley is returning to Neville's view something "formerly ... receiued from you" and says the publication effects "what you did desire."
• Documented: Shaw's Knights of England records HENRY NEVILL, of Berks as knighted on 30 March 1609, with the place carried by ibid. from the immediately preceding Whitehall entries.
• Documented: The full 1619 imprint identifies Walkley's shop as "at the signe of the Eagle and Child in Brittains-Bursse." This is the same shop address associated with other Walkley publications and helps fix the physical location of the Neville/Walkley transaction.
• Documented: Thomas Walkley later published the 1622 quarto of Othello.
• Documented: Othello was entered in the Stationers' Register on October 6, 1621 by Thomas Walkley.
• Documented: The 1622 first quarto of Othello was printed by Nicholas Okes for Thomas Walkley.
• Documented: The younger Sir Henry Neville was baptized on 10 March 1588, the first son of Sir Henry Neville and Anne Killigrew.
• Documented: He was educated at Merton College, Oxford from 1600, took BA 1603, travelled in France in 1607-8, and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1614.
• Documented: He married Elizabeth Smythe on 2 May 1609, with a marriage portion of £3,200.
• Documented: He sat as MP for Chipping Wycombe (1614) and Wilton (elected 8 Nov. 1621), succeeded his father in 1615, signed himself Henry Nevill, and died on 29 June 1629.
• Documented: He held Berkshire forest and local offices after 1615 and belonged to major trading companies including the East India Company, Africa Company, New River Company, and Virginia Company.
• Strong inference: The dedicatee in 1619 is Sir Henry Neville the younger, son of the elder Henry Neville, because the elder Neville died in 1615 and the son had already been knighted in 1609.
• Strong inference: The dedication strongly implies Neville-family involvement in making the play available for print.
• Strong inference: Zachary Lesser argues that the elder Sir Henry Neville was apparently the original owner of the manuscript from which Walkley printed the first edition, and that the manuscript likely remained in family possession until the son released it.
• Needs verification: Any stronger claim that the son definitely "provided the manuscript" should be treated cautiously until the exact wording of the dedication and Lesser's argument are checked together.

5. Strongest Sources

• 1619 Internet Archive / Boston Public Library scan
• Internet Archive plain OCR text for the 1619 scan
• Folger Early Modern English Drama: A King and No King
• Folger catalog record for the 1619 quarto (STC 1670)
• Stationers' Register Online entry SRO6958
• Shaw, *Knights of England*, vol. II, Internet Archive text witness
• History of Parliament: Sir Henry Neville III (1588-1629)
• Local PDF of Zachary Lesser article
• Zachary Lesser, ELH 69.4 (2002) citation via DOI
• Folger: Othello, first edition (1622)
• Folger: Stationers' Register entry for Othello (1621)
• ThePeerage profile for Sir Henry Neville (born 1588, died 1629)
• Raw thread review shortlist entry: Walkley 1619 -> Othello 1622
• Raw thread review ledger entry: publication trail
• Twitter v9 First Folio / publication material
• Twitter v9 family material

6. Key Quotations

• Title-page / imprint witness, from the 1619 quarto:

"A king and no king : acted at the Globe, by His Maiesties Seruants"

• Imprint line, from the 1619 quarto:

"AT LONDON Printed for Thomas Walkley"

• Full imprint line including shop address, from the 1619 quarto:

"AT LONDON Printed for Thomas Walkley, and are to be sold at his shop, at the signe of the Eagle and Child in Brittains-Bursse."

• Dedication heading:

"THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL, AND WORTHIE Knight, Sir Henrie Nevill"

• Dedication language, the most important wording in the witness:

"I Present, or rather returnes vnto your view, that which formerly hath beene receiued from you, effecting what you did desire"

• Dedication language on approval/patronage:

"It sufficeth it hath your Worships approbation and patronage"

• Stationers' Register Online / catalog note for the 1619 quarto:

"Stationers' register: Entered to E. Blount 7 August 1618."

• Folger Early Modern English Drama paratext description:

"DEDICATION: Epistle to: Henry Neville, Knight (d. 1629); from: Thomas Walkley [A2r]"

• Shaw's knighthood entry for the younger Sir Henry Neville:

"1609, Mar. 30. HENRY NEVILL, of Berks, (ibid)."

• ThePeerage summary line for the son:

"Sir Henry Neville ... b. 10 March 1588, d. 29 June 1629"

• History of Parliament profile heading data supplied by the user:

"bap. 10 Mar. 1588 ... m. 2 May 1609 ... kntd. 30 Mar. 1609; suc. fa. 1615. d. 29 June 1629. sig. Henry Nevill."

• Lesser's key manuscript-possession claim:

"The same Sir Henry Neville was apparently the original owner of the manuscript from which Thomas Walkley printed the first edition of A King and No King."

• Lesser on the dedication's likely family transmission:

"it seems likely ... that it was the father who originally procured the manuscript; after his death, it stayed in his family possession until his son gave it to Walkley."

• Lesser on why Neville matters politically:

"At the center of this debate stood Sir Henry Neville, the creator in 1612 of a new form of this relationship: the parliamentary 'undertaking'"

• Folger bibliographic description of the 1622 Othello quarto:

"London : printed by N[icholas]. O[kes]. for Thomas Walkley ... 1622."

• Folger on the Stationers' Register entry:

"Othello was first entered into Liber D of the Stationers' Company on October 6, 1621. Thomas Walkley, the publisher who entered the title, entered it as 'The Tragedie of Othello, the moore of Venice.'"

• The Othello Stationers' Register entry was licensed by Sir George Buck (Master of the Revels) and Mr. Swinhowe; the fee recorded was sixpence. The entry appears in Liber D, p. 21.

• The 1622 Othello Q1 title page specifies performance venues:

"As it hath beene diuerse times acted at the Globe, and at the Black-Friers, by his Maiesties Seruants."

7. Important Names / Entities

• Sir Henry Neville the younger

Documented younger son of the elder Henry Neville; baptized 10 March 1588, educated at Merton College Oxford, travelled in France in 1607-8, knighted 30 March 1609, married Elizabeth Smythe on 2 May 1609, MP for Chipping Wycombe in 1614 and Wilton from 8 November 1621, succeeded his father in 1615, and died 29 June 1629. He is the most likely dedicatee of the 1619 quarto.

• Sir Henry Neville (1563-1615)

The elder Neville; relevant because his 1615 death is what makes the 1619 dedicatee almost certainly the son.

• Thomas Walkley

Bookseller/publisher named on the 1619 quarto; entered Othello in the Stationers' Register in 1621 and issued Othello Q1 in 1622.

• Edward Blount

Important because the surviving bibliographic record for the 1619 A King and No King notes a Stationers' Register entry to him in 1618, before the Walkley printing.

• Francis Beaumont

Co-author of A King and No King.

• John Fletcher

Co-author of A King and No King; especially relevant because of Fletcher's proximity to late Shakespearean publication questions.

• Boston Public Library

Holding institution for the surviving scanned witness on Internet Archive.

• Zachary Lesser

Key secondary scholar for interpreting the dedication, Neville's relation to the manuscript, and the play's political reading in relation to mixed government and parliamentary management.

• Elizabeth Smythe

Wife of the younger Sir Henry Neville; her 2 May 1609 marriage to him sits only weeks after the 30 March 1609 knighting entry.

8. The Dedicatee: Profile of the Younger Sir Henry Neville

This section exists because the identification of the dedicatee should not float as a loose family assumption. The younger Sir Henry Neville can be described with enough precision to make the 1619 dedication legible.

• Birth / baptism: baptized 10 March 1588.
• Parents: son of Sir Henry Neville (1563-1615) and Anne Killigrew.
• Education: Merton College, Oxford, from 1600; BA 1603.
• Travel: in France in 1607-8.
• Knighthood: Shaw records HENRY NEVILL, of Berks as knighted on 30 March 1609.
• Marriage: married Elizabeth Smythe on 2 May 1609, with £3,200.
• Legal training: admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1614.
• Political offices: MP for Chipping Wycombe in 1614; MP for Wilton from 8 Nov. 1621.
• Local offices: high steward of Wokingham from 1615; keeper of Battle's Walk in Windsor Forest 1615-21, and associated forest office-holding thereafter.
• Corporate memberships: East India Company by 1618, Africa Company 1618, New River Company by 1619, Virginia Company by 1620.
• Court office: gentleman of the privy chamber extraordinary from 1628 to death.
• Signature: Henry Nevill.
• Death: died 29 June 1629; buried 30 June 1629 at Waltham St. Lawrence, Berkshire.

Why this matters for the 1619 dedication:

• By 1619, the elder Neville had been dead nearly four years.
• The son was already a knight, so the title-page form Sir Henrie Nevill fits him exactly.
• The son was an adult householder, educated gentleman, Berkshire office-holder, investor in major trading companies, and active public figure in 1619, not a minor heir or shadowy placeholder.
• That does not prove he personally edited or transmitted the play. It does make him the cleanest and historically most plausible referent of the printed dedication.

9. Additional Biography Relevant to This Topic

The History of Parliament material broadens the significance of the dedicatee beyond mere identification.

• He entered adulthood in a household already marked by French travel, Oxford education, and the political consequences of the Essex rising.
• He travelled in France in 1607-8, which is useful background because the family remained oriented toward the same continental and diplomatic world associated with his father.
• After inheriting in 1615, he managed a debt-ridden estate, sold timber and manors, and at the same time invested in chartered companies.
• His memberships in the East India Company, Africa Company, New River Company, and Virginia Company place him inside the same commercial-political world that later overlaps with Shakespeare publication history and the Herbert network.
• The History of Parliament entry also states that after his death Pembroke purchased the wardship of Neville's son, and that Sir John Thoroughgood later married Neville's widow and acquired the wardship himself. That belongs more fully to a later wardship/custody topic, but it is relevant here because it shows the dedicatee sitting inside a continuing chain of manuscript-capable family and patronal management.

10. Chronology

10. Open Questions / Caution Flags

• The dedication itself is strong evidence for Neville-family involvement, but it does not by itself prove the exact mechanism of manuscript transfer.
• The phrase "formerly hath beene receiued from you" strongly suggests prior receipt from Neville, but the exact editorial and bibliographical implications still need careful bibliographical handling.
• The Stationers' Register note introduces a second bibliographic problem: how the 1618 Blount entry relates to the 1619 Walkley edition.
• The direct register entry should now be preferred over the catalog-only note when citing the 1618 registration.
• Shaw's knighthood listing is strong for the date, but the OCR witness uses ibid.; in the packet this should be understood as referring back to the Whitehall location in the surrounding sequence.
• The History of Parliament entry should now be preferred over ThePeerage for the son's biography, education, offices, and family placement.
• The user supplied the relevant History of Parliament text directly because the site is bot-protected in terminal access; the packet therefore relies on user-supplied HoP transcription plus the linked authority page.
• ThePeerage remains useful as a secondary genealogical check, but it is no longer the preferred biographical source in this packet.
• The Folger EMED record is now the preferred quick external citation for the dedication's identity and bibliographic metadata, while the IA scan remains the preferred direct image/text witness.
• Lesser's article now supplies a direct secondary basis for the elder-Neville manuscript-possession claim, but the full argument should still be extracted more comprehensively if this topic becomes central.
• The connection to Othello Q1 is suggestive and important, but stronger claims about shared manuscript custody should remain cautious unless additional documentary evidence is found.
• The Walkley connection itself is strong and documented; what remains uncertain is the exact manuscript route from Neville-family possession to later Shakespeare print.

11. Local Source Paths

• /Users/kenf/twitter-2026-02-07-2efd68052c1ea2ab8dace337dfb2be00cd0fe55c449caffded42baf929ab89c7/raw_thread_review_v1/top_tier_shortlist_v1.tsv
• /Users/kenf/twitter-2026-02-07-2efd68052c1ea2ab8dace337dfb2be00cd0fe55c449caffded42baf929ab89c7/raw_thread_review_v1/thread_master_index_v1_reviewed.tsv
• /Users/kenf/twitter-2026-02-07-2efd68052c1ea2ab8dace337dfb2be00cd0fe55c449caffded42baf929ab89c7/Neville_Book_Material_v9/Topics/First_Folio.md
• /Users/kenf/twitter-2026-02-07-2efd68052c1ea2ab8dace337dfb2be00cd0fe55c449caffded42baf929ab89c7/Neville_Book_Material_v9/Biography/Family.md
• /Users/kenf/Neville Book/01_Timeline_of_Henry_Neville/MixedGovernment.pdf

12. Citation To Preserve

Lesser, Zachary. "Mixed Government and Mixed Marriage in A King and No King: Sir Henry Neville Reads Beaumont and Fletcher." ELH, vol. 69, no. 4, 2002, pp. 947-977. Project MUSE. DOI: 10.1353/elh.2002.0037.

Thrush, Andrew. NEVILLE, Sir Henry III (1588-1629), of Billingbear, Berks. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1604-1629.