John Benson (publisher)
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John Benson was a British publisher known for a historically important publication of miscellaneous poems by William Shakespeare in 1640. The title of the publication reads:
POEMS: VVRITTEN BY WIL. SHAKESSPEARE. Gent. Printed at London by Tho. Cotes, and are to be sold by John Benson dwelling in St. Dunstans Church-yard. 1640.
The edition combined Shakespeare's sonnets with sundry other poems, not all of which were by Shakespeare himself. Benson is notorious for rearranging the order of the sonnets into groups, which he presented as complete poems, for which he invented titles. He also changed the pronouns in several of the sonnets to create the impression that they were written to a woman.[1]
[edit] Use by Oxfordians
Proponents of Oxfordian theory consider it significant that the dedicatory poem by Ben Jonson was printed with question marks instead of exclamation marks, in particular the line "This shadow is renowned Shakespear's?" This is taken to imply a doubt that Shakespeare was the true author, or possibly an intentional hint to the reader. Orthodox scholars assert that question marks were commonly used interchangeably with exclamation marks at this time.[2]
