Thomas Heywood writes in the epistle 'To the Reader' in the 1608 quarto of his 'The Rape of Lucrece' that he does not usually condone the sale of his plays to the press, unlike others who 'haue used a double sale of their labours, first to the Stage, and after to the presse[.]' He claims his earlier plays to see print were 'corrupt and mangled, (copied onely by the eare) that I haue bene as unable to know them, as ashamed to chalenge them.' All this is to justify his authorization of the printing of 'The Rape of Lucrece.'