But that contention has been discounted, as the Tonson copyright applied only to the plays he had already published, not to any newly discovered play by Shakespeare ; and Theobald edited an edition of the complete works for Tonson, whose commercial interests would have been substantially bettered if he had been able to advertise the edition as containing a hitherto " lost " play.

Jacob Tonson had the sole rights to Prior's works, but Curll published anyway.

The quarrel with Tonson, and Prior's objections, only served as publicity, however, and Curll published the book anyway.

Tonson published editions of John Dryden and John Milton, and is best known for having obtained a copyright on the plays of William Shakespeare by buying up the rights of the heirs of the publisher of the Fourth Folio after the Statute of Anne went into effect.

It has been said that when Tonson bought the copy of Troilus and Cressida ( 1679 ), the first play of John Dryden's that he published, he was obliged to borrow the purchase money (£ 20 ) from Abel Swalle, another bookseller.

Joseph Addison's Poem to his Majesty was published by Tonson in 1695, and there was some correspondence respecting a proposed joint translation of Herodotus by Boyle, Richard Blackmore, Addison, and others.

Dryden's translation of Virgil, executed between 1693 and 1696, was published by Tonson in July 1697 by subscription.

Dryden's collection of translations from Boccaccio, Chaucer, and others, known as The Fables, was published by Tonson in November 1699 ; a second edition did not appear until 1713.

Tonson published Congreve's reply to Collier, and at a later date The Faithful Friend and The Confederacy by his friend, Sir John Vanbrugh.

In 1703 Tonson went to the Dutch Republic to obtain paper and engravings for the fine edition of Caesar's Commentaries, which was ultimately published under Samuel Clarke's care in 1712.

In 1705 Tonson published Addison's Remarks on several Parts of Italy.

Nicholas Rowe's edition of Shakespeare, in six volumes, was published early in 1709 by Tonson, who had previously advertised for materials.

In the same year Tonson published the Duke of Buckingham's Works, and in 1725 Pope's edition of Shakespeare.

Tonson published a quarto edition of Waller's works, edited by Fenton, in 1729, and an edition of Lord Lansdowne's works in 1732.

Over the next two decades, Pills went through various editions and expanded into five volumes ; in 1719 Thomas D ' Urfey reordered and added to the work to produce a new edition ( also in 5 volumes ) with the title Songs Compleat, Pleasant and Divertive, published by Jacob Tonson.

During the ensuing year Tonson continued to bring out pieces by Dryden, and on 6 October 1691 paid thirty guineas for all the author's rights in the printing of the tragedy of Cleomenes.

Verses by young Alexander Pope were circulating among the critics in 1705, and in April 1706 Tonson wrote to Pope proposing to publish a pastoral poem of his.

Richard Tonson had a shop within Gray's Inn Gate ; Jacob Tonson's shop was for many years at the Judge's Head in Chancery Lane, near Fleet Street.

Tonson would pay nothing for notes ; Dryden retorted, " The notes and prefaces shall be short, because you shall get the more by saving paper.

It is not always easy to distinguish the uncle from the nephew in later years ; the latter is sometimes referred to as Tonson junior.

There is a tradition that in earlier days Steele had had a daughter by a daughter of Tonson's ; if this is true, it must apparently have been a daughter of Richard Tonson, Jacob's brother.

" Accounts furnished to Steele by Tonson of the sale of the collective editions of the Tatler and Spectator have been preserved ; from October 1712 Tonson's name was joined with Samuel Buckley's as publisher of the Spectator.

' In January 1720 Tonson obtained a grant to himself and his nephew of the office of stationer, bookseller, and printer to some of the principal public offices ; and on 12 October 1722 he assigned the whole benefit of the grant to his nephew.

Earlier in the year the elder Tonson was in town, and Pope, writing to Lord Oxford, said that if he would come to see him he would show him a phenomenon worth seeing, " old Jacob Tonson, who is the perfect image and likeness of Bayle's Dictionary ; so full of matter, secret history, and wit and spirit, at almost fourscore.

A painting of the elder Tonson by Godfrey Kneller is among the Kit-Cat portraits ; it is best known through Faber's engraving.

John Dunton describes Tonson as " a very good judge of persons and authors ; and as there is nobody more competently qualified to give their opinion of another, so there is none who does it with a more severe exactness or with less partiality ; for, to do Mr. Tonson justice, he speaks his mind upon all occasions, and will flatter nobody.

Besides the papers at Bayfordbury, there is a considerable collection of Tonson papers in the British Museum, some relating to business and some to private matters ; but many of them are damaged or fragmentary.

* Raymond N. MacKenzie, ‘ Tonson, Jacob, the elder ( 1655 / 6 – 1736 )’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004 ; online edn, January 2008, accessed 11 January 2008

" I walked the length of the Elmes, and with great pleasure saw some gallant ladies and people come with their bottles, and basket, and chairs, and form, to sup under the trees, by the water-side, which was mighty pleasant " When Barn Elms was in the possession of the bookseller Jacob Tonson, the Kit-Cat Club met at Barn Elms for many years ; here the " Kit-Kat portraits " hung ; Tonson's extensions to the house, c1703, seem to have been made under the general advice of John Vanbrugh, a Kit-Kat member.

There is an undated letter from Mrs. Aphra Behn to Tonson at Bayfordbury, thanking him warmly for what he had said on her behalf to Dryden.

Theobald's Shakespeare Restored is a judicious, if ill-tempered, answer to Pope's edition, but in 1733 Theobald produced a rival edition of Shakespeare in seven volumes for Jacob Tonson, the book seller.

In November 1712 Addison and Steele sold all their right and title in one half of the copies of the first seven volumes of the Spectator to Tonson the younger, for £ 575, and all rights in the other half for a similar sum to Buckley.

In the summer of 1714 we hear of Steele writing political pamphlets at Tonson's, where there were three bottles of wine of Steele's, and in October Tonson printed Steele's Ladies ' Library.

Before the end of the century Tonson had moved from the Judge's Head to a shop in Gray's Inn Gate, probably the one previously occupied by his brother Richard.

Buckley in October 1714 reassigned his half-share in the Spectator to Tonson junior for £ 500.

" Richard Tonson died on 9 October 1772.

In this period, Pope was also employed by the publisher Jacob Tonson to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare.

The dispute was argued out in a number of notable cases, including Millar v. Kincaid ( 1749 – 1751 ) and Tonson v. Collins ( 1761 – 1762 ).

The dispute was argued out in a number of notable cases, including Millar v. Kincaid ( 1749 – 1751 ) and Tonson v. Collins ( 1761 – 1762 ).

It was built by Jonathon Tonson Garlick as a four-room cottage in 1865 and extended in 1881.

Jacob Tonson, sometimes referred to as Jacob Tonson the elder ( 1655 / 6 – 1736 ) was an 18th-century English bookseller and publisher.

His nephew, Jacob Tonson the younger ( 1682 – 1735 ) was his business partner.

The business was continued by the younger Tonson's son Jacob Tonson ( 1714 – 1767 ).

Tonson was the second son of Jacob Tonson, chirurgeon and citizen of London, who died in 1668.

Tonson was sufficiently well off to purchase plays by Otway and Nahum Tate.

In the earlier part of his life Tonson was much associated with Dryden.

By 1700 Tonson's position was well established, and about that time the Kit-Cat Club was founded, with Tonson as secretary.

Tonson was satirised in several skits, and it was falsely alleged that he had been expelled by the club, or had withdrawn from the society in scorn of being their jest any longer.