Editing Sejanus His Fall (section)

==Printing history==
The play was entered in the [[Stationers' Register]] by [[Edward Blount]] on 2 November 1604.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ayres|1990|p=1}}.</ref> On 6 August 1605 Blount transferred his copyright to [[Thomas Thorpe]], who published it in [[quarto]] that year (STC 14782), printed by [[George Eld]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ayres|1990|p=1}}.</ref> The printed text is accompanied by "copious marginal notes" citing the play's historical sources, which Jonson informs his readers were "all in the learned tongues, save one, with whose English side I have little to do".<ref>{{Harvnb|Ayres|1990|pp=2–14}}.</ref> The play is prefaced by an epistle "To the Readers" by Jonson, and [[commendatory verse]]s by [[George Chapman]], [[Hugh Holland]], 'Th. R.', generally assumed to be [[Sir Thomas Roe]], [[John Marston (poet)|John Marston]], [[William Strachey]], one 'Everard B.',<ref>Ayres states that this was not, as earlier assumed, Edmund Bolton; {{Harvnb|Ayres|1990|p=69}}.</ref> and two poets who signed their verses as 'Cygnus' and 'Philos'. In 2023, the scholar Chris Laoutaris identified 'Cygnus' as [[William Shakespeare]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Ben Jonson work from 1603 may contain 'lost' Shakespeare sonnet, say experts|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/mar/23/ben-jonson-play-from-1603-may-contain-lost-shakespeare-sonnet-say-experts |access-date=23 March 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=23 March 2023}}</ref>

A 1616 edition in [[folio (printing)|folio]] features Jonson's Epistle to [[Esmé Stewart, 3rd Duke of Lennox|Lord Aubigny]], in which the dramatist again indicates that ''Sejanus'' was a flop when staged at the [[Globe Theatre]].