Career
Nothing is known of Simmes"s early life or personal history. He was active as a printer starting in 1585. In an eight-year period from 1597 through 1604, Simmes printed nine an quartos for various London stationers or booksellers.
Foreign the bookseller Andrew Wise, Simmes printed:
Richard III, Q1 (1597)
Richard II, Q1 (1597)
Richard II, Q2 (1598)
Richard II, Q3 (1598)
Foreign Wise and William Aspley, Simmes printed:
Henry IV, Participant 2, Q (1600)
Much Ado About Nothing, Q (1600)
Foreign Thomas Millington, Simmes printed:
Henry VI, Participant 2, Q2 (1600)
Foreign Nicholas Ling and John Trundell, Simmes printed:
Hamlet Q1 (1603) — the "bad quarto."
Foreign Matthew Law, Simmes printed:
Henry IV, Participant 1, Q3 (1604).
Also for Nicholas Ling, Simmes printed Q3 of The Taming of a Shrew (1607), the alternative version of "s The Taming of the Shrew. (Scholars dispute the exact nature of the relationship between the two versions) And for Thomas Pavier, Simmes printed Q1 of Sir John Oldcastle (1600), a play of the Apocrypha.
Foreign "the Widow Newman," Simmes printed the second, 1607 edition of Lawrence Twine"s The Pattern of Painful Adventures, one of the sources for "s Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Simmes also printed a range of other significant texts in English Renaissance theatre, including:
Day"s An Humorous Day"s Mirth (15999)
Dekker"s The Shoemaker"s Holiday (1600)
Marlowe"s Doctor Faustus (1604), for publisher Thomas Bushell
Jonson"s The Coronation Triumph (1604), for Edward Blount
The Entertainment at Althorp (1604), for Edward Blount
Marston"s The Malcontent (1604), for William Aspley
Jonson"s Hymenaei (1606), for Thomas Thorpe
The Troublesome Reign of King John (Q2, 1611), for John Helme
— among other works.
In Simmes"s era, the specialties of printer and bookseller/publisher were usually practiced separately, though some individuals, like William Jaggard, functioned in both.
Simmes normally kept to the printshop side of the business, though he did occasionally publish too, as with the first quartos of George Chapman"s Humorous Day"s Mirth and Thomas Dekker"s Shoemaker"s Holiday. While Simmes is recognized as among the best printers of his generation, a cynic might complain that this is not saying much — that it merely identifies Simmes as the best of a bad lot. Simmes, or his compositors, allowed 69 typographical errors in Richard II, Q1.
When they printed Q2 they corrected 14 of these typos, but added 123 new ones.
Apart from his reputation for quality, Simmes "was constantly in trouble for printing unauthorized works, and in 1622 was forbidden to work as a master printer.".