Epicene [spelled Epicoene], or The Silent Woman, was registered on the Stationers’ Register with the following entry in 1610:

20^mo Septembris
John Brown    Entred for their copye vnder thandes of Sir
John Busby    George Bucke and master Waterson for master
junior       warden Leake, A booke called, Epicoene or the
silent woman by Ben: Johnson.       vj^d
(Arber, Transcript, 3.444)

John Browne then transferred his rights to Walter Burre on 28 September 1612 as attested by the following entry:

Walter Burre/    Entred for his copie by assignment from John Browne
and consent of the Wardens in full Court holden this day /.
A booke called the Commodye of the silent Woman vj^d
(Arber, Transcript, 3.498)

The play was published in the Jonson folio of 1616 and then in quarto in 1620 by William Stansby, who must have made some business arrangement with Burre, although such an arrangement remains unrecorded. Not until 4 July 1635 did the Register belatedly take cognizance of Stansby’s rights to Epicene and six other plays – Every Man In, Cynthia’s Revels, Sejanus, Volpone, The Alchemist, and Catiline – that had been assigned to Burre in 1612:

Master Stansby       Entred for his Copies by vertue of a noate under the
hand of Walter Burre and master John Lowndes warden
bearing date the 10^th of June 1621 as therby appeareth these
Copies following (viz t .) by order of a Court       iii^svi^d (Arber, Transcript, 4.342)

No explanation has been offered as to why this formal confirmation of Stansby’s rights was delayed until 1635.

Prior to that time, the copyright to eleven books including Epicene had been assigned by John Browne’s widow to John Marriott on 17 February 1623, but evidently without her knowledge that Brown had assigned the copyright to Burre, and so the Registry entry was cancelled (Arber, Transcript, 4.92). Similarly, Burre’s widow after his death in 1622 assigned her supposed rights in Epicene and eight other books to John Spencer on 3 July 1630, but seemingly because she did not in fact own the rights this entry too was cancelled.