First Folio
The First Folio is the first printed collection of plays by William Shakespeare, published in 1623, three years after his death. Officially titled *Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies*, it is a vital source for understanding Shakespeare's works, as it contains nearly half of his plays, including eighteen that had never been published before. The anthology is considered one of the cornerstones of English literature, preserving texts that might have otherwise been lost to history. Notably, it introduced act and scene divisions to Shakespeare's plays and featured one of the few known portraits of the playwright, which was created by Martin Droeshout.
Originally, about 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, but today only around 230 are known to exist, making them priceless artifacts of cultural heritage. The Folio gained popularity and led to subsequent editions, although many later attributions of plays have been contested. The largest collection of surviving First Folios is housed at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. Due to its significance, the First Folio often garners attention when copies are discovered or sold, with notable finds occurring as recently as the 2010s. Overall, the First Folio plays a crucial role in the preservation and appreciation of Shakespeare's literary legacy.
First Folio
The First Folio is the first-ever printed anthology of the works of renowned Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare, who lived from 1564 to 1616. Originally published as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies in 1623, the First Folio is widely considered to be one of the most important books in English literary history. It is the only surviving contemporary source of almost half of Shakespeare's plays, including eighteen that were never previously published. Without the First Folio, some of Shakespeare's greatest works, including Macbeth and Julius Caesar, likely would not exist today. It provides perhaps the most accurate and reliable period reproduction of Shakespeare's original writings. Of the approximately 750 copies of the First Folio that were originally printed, only about 230 are known to have survived. The remaining copies are generally considered to be priceless artifacts that are crucial to preserving the heritage of English literature.
Background
Shakespeare is widely regarded as not only one of Elizabethan England's top playwrights and poets, but also one of the greatest wordsmiths in the entire history of Western literature. During the course of his roughly twenty-three-year career, Shakespeare wrote a total of 154 sonnets and five long narrative poems. He also wrote thirty-eight plays. Many of these plays, including masterworks such as Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, are considered to be among the best ever written. Shakespeare's contributions to English literature are virtually unparalleled.
In addition to being celebrated for their outstanding literary and dramatic qualities, Shakespeare's plays are uniquely valuable because they are among the few remaining examples of Elizabethan drama. Despite the fact that plays were prolifically written and staged during the Elizabethan era, most such works have been lost to time because few were ever published. Many of the Elizabethan plays that survive were initially published in the form of quartos. A quarto is a book in which each printed sheet of paper is folded twice to produce four double-sided leaves for a total of eight pages. Most quartos were small, flimsy books that were easily damaged or misplaced. As a result, few have survived to modern times. About half of Shakespeare's plays were published individually as quartos during his lifetime. Titus Andronicus and Henry IV, Part 2 became the first of Shakespeare's plays to be made available in print when they were initially published as quartos in 1594. That same year, Shakespeare also became a published poet with the print debut of a pair of long poems called Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece in quarto form. His sonnets were later published as a quarto in 1609.
Had Shakespeare's plays and other works been published only as quartos, it is likely that few if any would have survived. At the time, such works were not normally published in any other way. This changed, however, when the first folio edition of playwright Ben Jonson's works was published in 1616. A folio is larger book in which each printed sheet of paper is folded only once to create two double-sided leaves for a total of four pages. The release of a folio anthology of Jonson's works was ultimately crucial to the preservation of Shakespeare's works.
Overview
Jonson's folio was published in the same year that Shakespeare died. After his death, some of his friends and colleagues thought that his works should be preserved the same way. To that end, John Heminge and Henry Condell, a pair of actors who worked with Shakespeare when he was the playwright for the original Chamberlain's Men playing company, began putting together a collection of Shakespeare's plays in 1620. Using text from company prompt-books and Shakespeare's own handwritten manuscripts, the pair produced a complete folio, which they published as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies in 1623. Since that time, this publication has become commonly known as the First Folio.
The First Folio contains thirty-six of Shakespeare's thirty-eight surviving plays, excluding only Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Among the featured works were eighteen plays that had never been published before: All's Well That Ends Well; Antony and Cleopatra; As You Like It; Comedy of Errors; Coriolanus; Cymbeline; Henry VI, Part I; Henry VIII; Julius Caesar; King John; Macbeth; Measure for Measure; The Taming of the Shrew; The Tempest; Timon of Athens; Twelfth Night; Two Gentlemen of Verona; and The Winter's Tale. The existence of these plays today may well be entirely attributed to their inclusion in the First Folio.
While preparing Shakespeare's plays for publication in the First Folio, Heminge and Condell added act and scene divisions for the first time. They added some stage directions not found in previous printings. In addition, the First Folio included one of only two portraits of Shakespeare believed to be historically accurate. The portrait in question was created by English engraver Martin Droeshout. In his "To the Reader" verse at the beginning of the First Folio, Ben Jonson notes that Droeshout's portrait offers a good likeness of the real Shakespeare.
The First Folio sold well when it was finally published. In light of its success, several subsequent editions were published. The 1632 Second Folio included many small corrections to the original text. This was later followed by the 1663 Third Folio and the 1685 Fourth Folio. The third and fourth editions added an array of new plays, most of which were later determined not to have been penned by Shakespeare.
Of the estimated 750 copies of the First Folio that were originally produced, only about 230 are known to still exist today. Many of the surviving copies were purchased by wealthy American railway tycoons in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Eventually, more than half of the known copies made their way into library, museum, or university collections. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, has the largest single collection, with eighty-two copies of the First Folio (all of which were put on public display for the first time in 2024 after a major gallery expansion project).
Due to their rarity and importance, individual copies of the First Folio have made headlines when discovered or sold. For example, in 2014 a previously lost copy was found in a former Jesuit library in St. Omer, France. In April 2016, another previously lost copy of the work was found at Mount Stuart House on Scotland's Isle of Bute. Purported newly discovered copies are carefully examined before being authenticated, as many fake First Folios were produced during the Victorian era. A number of these were made by a craftsman who was hired by the British Museum to replace missing or damaged portions of surviving First Folios and other vintage books.
Bibliography
Coughlan, Sean. "Shakespeare First Folio Discovered on Scottish Island." BBC, 7 Apr. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/education-35973094. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.
Pressley, J.M. "A Brief History of William Shakespeare's First Folio." Shakespeare Resource Center, www.bardweb.net/content/ac/firstfolio.html. Accessed 24 June 2024.
"Publishing Shakespeare." Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/publishing-shakespeare. Accessed 24 June 2024.
Schuessler, Jennifer. "The Folger Library Wants to Reintroduce You to Shakespeare." The New York Times, 21 June 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/arts/21shakespeare-folger-renovation.html. Accessed 24 June 2024.
"Shakespeare's First Folio." British Library, www.britishlibrary.cn/en/works/first-folio/. Accessed 24 June 2024.
"Shakespeare's First Folio." State Library New South Wales, www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/shakespeare-400/shakespeares-first-folio. Accessed 24 June 2024.
Smith, Emma. The Making of Shakespeare's First Folio. Bodleian Library, 2015.
Smith, Emma. Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book. Oxford UP, 2016.
Stamberg, Susan. "400 Years after His Death, Shakespeare's First Folio Goes Out on Tour." NPR, 4 Jan. 2016, www.npr.org/2016/01/04/461601333/400-years-after-death-shakespeares-first-folio-goes-out-on-tour. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.