independent bookseller by 1635. His shop was located as the sign of the Crown in Fleet Street, and later in Chancery Lane. On 1 June 1635 the Widow Leake transferred her late husband's copyrights to William II. In 1638 he obtained control of the copyrights of the late Richard Hawkins — and both of these consignments of rights contained play texts. Even though the works of Shakespeare and Beaumont and Fletcher had been published in large folio collections by the middle of the seventeenth century (the Shakespeare First Folio in 1623 and the Second Folio in 1632; the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio in 1647), publishers continued to issue editions of individual plays when they judged there was a market for them. William Leake the younger issued several of these later editions: the 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th editions of A King and No King (1639, 1655, 1661, 1676); the 5th, 6th, and 7th editions of Philaster (1639, 1652, 1663?); the 5th and 6th editions of The Maid's Tragedy (1641, 1650); the 4th quarto of The Merchant of Venice (1652); the 3rd quarto of Othello (1655). Leake also reprinted James Shirley's The Grateful Servant (1637) and The Wedding (1660), as well as multiple editions of Hero and Leander that included both Marlowe's original and Chapman's continuation (1637 and after). Leake published first editions as well as reprints. In 1640 he issued John Gough's tragicomedy The Strange Discovery, and Christ's Passion, George Sandys's translation of a tragedy by Hugo Grotius. And like his father (indeed like most publishers of his period), the younger Leake also published a variety of other types of books, including popular literature like The Pleasant History of Lazarillo de Tormes (sixth and subsequent editions, 1639 and after) and Le Prince D'Amour (1660), and serious works like Sir Thomas Urchard's Epigrams Divine and Moral (1646) and John Wilson's translation of The Praise of Folly of Eramus (1668). William Leake the younger was followed in his business by his son John Leake. See also Walter Burre Francis Constable Crooke and Cooke John and Richard Marriot John Martyn Humphrey Moseley William Ponsonby Humphrey Robinson References Publishers (people) from London 1633 deaths 1681 deaths Year of birth unknown English booksellers