A prompt-book was a transcript of the play used during performances, cluttered with stage directions, instructions for sound effects, and the names of the actors. If a play was printed for a reading audience, it was often without the author's consent. Unprincipled publishers would steal the prompt-book, and sell copies for about fivepence apiece. "In March 1599, the theatrical manager Philip Henslowe endeavored to induce a publisher who had secured a playhouse copy of the comedy Patient Grissell, by Dekker, Chettle, and Haughton, to abandon the publication of it by offering him a bribe. The publication was suspended until 1603. Many times in subsequent years the Lord Chamberlain, in behalf of the acting companies warned the Stationers' Company against 'procuring publishing and printing plays by means whereof not only they [the actors] themselves had much prejudice, but the books much corruption, to the injury and disgrace of the authors" (Lee 548).
In 1604, in fear that his work would be pirated, John Marston hesitantly published his comedy, The Malcontent, and summarized the Elizabethan attitude toward publication when he wrote, "Only one thing afflicts me, to think that scenes, invented merely to be spoken, should be enforcively published to read."
