Samuel Weller Singer

Born in London, he was son of Thomas Singer, a feather and artificial-flower maker, who carried on business in Princes Street, Cavendish Square.

His father died when Samuel was ten years old, and his mother, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Weller, continued the feather and flower business.

Singer was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1825, but in 1827 his literary activity was checked by his acceptance of the office of librarian to the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street.

In 1811 he prepared for private circulation a limited edition of a reprint of Fénelon's 'Deux Dialogues sur la Peinture,' with a preface in French.

There followed similar editions of 'Lionora de' Bardi ed Hippolito Buondelmonte' (1813), 'Novelle Scelte Rarissime stampate a spese di XL Amatori' (1814), and 'Baliverneries ou Contes nouveaux d'Eutrapel' (1815).

An incomplete edition prepared by Edmond Malone was published independently on the same day as Singer's fuller version, which was reprinted in 1859.

A popular venture was an edition of Shakespeare in ten volumes, which Singer undertook for Whittingham; it was issued by the Chiswick Press in 1826.

The edition was frequently republished.. A reissue in 1856 included a series of critical essays by Singer's friend, William Watkiss Lloyd.

Singer made the earliest attack on the genuineness of John Payne Collier's manuscript corrections in the so-called Perkins folio.

He also printed, with an English translation, 'The Departing Soul's Address to the Body, a fragment of a semi-Saxon Poem discovered among the Archives of Worcester Cathedral by Sir Thomas Phillipps' (1845).