Francis Kirkman

Francis Kirkman was the eldest son of Francis Kirkman senior (1602–61), who was a member of the Blacksmith's Company and a citizen of the City of London. Little is known of the younger Kirkman's life beyond his publications. He wrote The Unlucky Citizen (1673), which is taken to be autobiographical, though Kirkman was anything but reliable. However, the part in which he refers to his discovery of literature rings true, and is a good example of his style and enterprise:

Once I happened upon a Six Pence, and having lately read that famous Book, of the Fryar and the Boy, and being hugely pleased with that, as also the excellent History of the Seven Wise Masters of Rome, and having heard great Commendation of Fortunatus, I laid out all my mony for that, and thought I had a great bargain ... now having read this Book, and being desirous of reading more of that nature; one of my School-fellows lent me Doctor Faustus, which also pleased me, especially when he travelled in the Air, saw all the World, and did what he listed.... The next Book I met with was Fryar Bacon, whose pleasant Stories much delighted me: But when I came to Knight Errantry, and reading Montelion Knight of the Oracle, and Ornatus and Artesia, and the Famous Parisimus; I was contented beyond measure, and (believing all I read to be true) wished my self Squire to one of these Knights: I proceeded on to Palmerin of England, and Amadis de Gaul; and borrowing one Book of one person, when I read it my self, I lent it to another, who lent me one of their Books; and thus robbing Peter to pay Paul, borrowing and lending from one to another, I in time had read most of these Histories. All the time I had from School, as Thursdays in the afternoon, and Saturdays, I spent in reading these Books; so that I being wholly affected to them, [sic] and reading how that Amadis and other Knights not knowing their Parents, did in time prove to be Sons of Kings and great Personages; I had such a fond and idle Opinion, that I might in time prove to be some great Person, or at leastwise be Squire to some Knight.

As will be seen, Kirkman’s enthusiasm for some of these books led him to publish them himself. He claims to have been forbidden to travel or be apprenticed into the book trade, and to have run away from the first scrivener to whom he was apprenticed.

Upon being apprenticed to another scrivener he installed his collection of novels and plays in his office, before selling many of them to finance the publication of his own translation of the sixth book of Amadis de Gaul (1652). It is characteristic that Kirkman's first publication was his own extension of a work already popular. His entrepreneurial talents were always directed towards the popular, or vulgar, end of the book trade. Although he became a freeman of the Blacksmith's Company he was never a member of the Stationers' Company.

From 1652 he operated as a scrivener and bookseller from a small shop near the Tower of London, and continued to trade from various premises in Thames Street, Fenchurch Street and Paul's Yard until 1680. From 1657 he was publishing plays, although his partnership with Henry Marsh, Nathaniel Brook and Thomas Johnson ended after they were accused of pirating books, probably an edition of Beaumont and Fletcher's The Scornful Lady. He also claimed to have been swindled by Marsh, whose business he took over after his death in 1666. Kirkman had received a substantial inheritance on his father's death in 1661, which he squandered, and although he had an entrepreneurial spirit he suffered continual financial problems.

Kirkman published many early novels, including many translated from French and Spanish. In 1652 he published The Loves and Adventures of Clerio and Lozia, which he also claimed was translated from French. One of his greatest successes was a novel, The English Rogue the first volume of which was written by Richard Head, and published in 1665. In 1666 Kirkman re-issued this, and then wrote a second volume in his own name (1668), followed by a third and fourth (1671), claiming Head as a co-author. In 1673 Kirkman wrote and issued under his own name The Counterfeit Lady Unveiled, a fictional autobiography of Mary Carleton, an impostor and bigamist. He also published other popular romances, such as The Famous and Delectable History of Don Bellianus of Greece, (1671–1674), The Seven Wise Masters of Rome (1674).

Kirkman also became increasingly interested in theatre. In 1661 he published his own play The Presbyterian Lash, based on the notorious story of Zachary Crofton, a minister accused of whipping his maidservant. Kirkman had a penchant for the picaresque in literature, and in attributions. He also collected manuscripts, which he published, including A Cure for a Cuckold and The Thracian Wonder (both 1661), and both correctly attributed to John Webster and William Rowley. In 1662 he published The Birth of Merlin, wrongly attributed by him to William Shakespeare and William Rowley. This has been described as "a medley in which legendary history, love romance, sententious praise of virginity, rough and tumble clown-play, necromancy and all kinds of diablerie jostle each other". He was also involved in the publication of plays pirated from other printers. For instance, Kirkman in 1661 published The Beggars Bush by John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, and Philip Massinger, pirated from Humphrey Robinson & Anne Moseley. Their hurried second printing contains a notice;

You may speedily expect those other Playes, which Kirkman, and his Hawkers have deceived the buyers withal, selling them at treble the value, that this and the rest will be sold for, which are the onely Originall and corrected copies, as they were first purchased by us at no mean rate, and since printed by use.

Kirkman's greatest contribution to literary history is his catalogues of plays. In 1671 he wrote "I have been these twenty years a Collector of plays, and have conversed with, and enquired of those that have been Collecting these fifty years". Kirkman's catalogues expanded upon two earlier lists, published in the first quartos of The Careless Shepherdess and The Old Law (both 1656).

The first catalogue, attached to an edition of Tom Tyler and his Wife (1661), included 690 plays published England. Kirkman claimed to have read them all, and be ready to sell or lend them, "upon reasonable considerations". In 1671 he expanded to list 806 plays, attached to a translation of Pierre Corneille's Nicomede. For the first time he listed them not by title, but by author, for the most popular authors. Kirkman listed 52 plays attributed to Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, with Ben Jonson the next most productive at 50, and William Shakespeare third with 48. This was probably an accurate representation of their comparative popularity at the time. It must also be an indication of his reputation that Kirkman advertised books for sale at the sign of The John Fletcher's Head, only the second author thought worthy of this, (the first being Jonson). Shakespeare never This list provided the basis for the work of Gerard Langbaine, which became the main source for English drama to the end of the seventeenth century.

From the above Kirkman is taken to have operated what amounted to the first circulating library, based on his collection, starting in 1660, in Westminster and moving to Bishopsgate by 1669.