Nicholas Ling

Nicholas Ling (died 1607) was a London publisher, bookseller and publisher. He published several important Elizabethan works, among them the first two quartos of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Ling was the son of John Lynge, a parchment makers from Norwich. He went from 1570 when Henry Bitteman in teaching and in 1578 a member of the Stationer. He often collaborates with other publishers. In 1597 he published a collection of quotations Politeuphuia, or Wits Commonwealth. The editorship of the collection of poems England 's Helicon (1600) is attributed to him. In 1603 he published the first quarto of Shakespeare's Hamlet with John Trundell. This edition was printed by Valentine Simmes and is regarded as so-called "bad quarto ". A few months later, James Roberts printed on his behalf, the second quarto of Hamlet. It is considered an authorized Shakespeare version of the play. Some authors suggest that John Trundell had a distorted version of Hamlet available and wanted to publish it quickly in order to meet the demand. Roberts, however, had confirmed by the Stationers entry of 1602, the copyright for the piece and possibly agreed with Ling printing the better version, which Ling had the opportunity to sell the piece twice.

Before his death, Ling sold 16 Copyrights to John Smethwick, including those of several Shakespeare plays.

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• World -Cat Identity for Nicholas Ling