First Folio

First Folio. The collected edition of William Shakespeare's dramatic works, published in 1623 under the title *Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies*. Compiled by his fellow actors John Heminges and Henry Condell, it preserved 36 plays, half of which might otherwise have been lost, including seminal works like Macbeth and The Tempest. Its publication seven years after Shakespeare's death in Stratford-upon-Avon fundamentally shaped the English literary canon and established the textual authority for his plays for centuries.

Publication and printing

The project was spearheaded by Shakespeare's colleagues from the King's Men, John Heminges and Henry Condell, who gathered the manuscripts. The printing was a significant commercial venture undertaken by the bookseller Edward Blount and the printer Isaac Jaggard, whose father William Jaggard had previously printed the contentious The Passionate Pilgrim. Work commenced at Jaggard's print shop in 1621, with typesetting and proofreading occurring over two years. A key promotional element was the dedication to the Earls of Pembroke and Montgomery, William Herbert and Philip Herbert, who were powerful patrons of the arts. The famous engraved portrait by Martin Droeshout appears on the title page, providing one of the only two authenticated likenesses of the playwright. Surviving copies show evidence of stop-press corrections, indicating active proofreading during the lengthy print run.

Contents and organization

The volume contains 36 plays, organized not chronologically but generically into sections: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. This tripartite structure, outlined in the catalogue, was innovative for its time. Notably absent are Pericles, Prince of Tyre and The Two Noble Kinsmen, which are now considered part of the Shakespeare Apocrypha. Eighteen plays appeared here for the first time in print, including Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, and The Winter's Tale. The texts were drawn from various sources: some from earlier Quarto editions, others from Promptbooks used in performance, and some from Foul Papers in Shakespeare's own hand. The volume opens with dedicatory poems and addresses, most famously the verse by Ben Jonson that proclaims Shakespeare as a figure "not of an age, but for all time."

Significance and legacy

Its cultural and literary impact cannot be overstated, as it served as the primary source for all subsequent editions of Shakespeare's collected works. Without this effort, masterpieces like The Tempest, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra might have vanished entirely. It canonized the division of the plays into three genres and solidified Shakespeare's posthumous reputation from popular playwright to national poet. The volume directly enabled the Second Folio (1632), Third Folio (1663/64), and Fourth Folio (1685), and its text formed the basis for the influential 18th-century editions by scholars like Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson. It is central to the field of Shakespearean bibliography and remains a key artifact for Textual criticism of his works.

Physical characteristics and variants

The book is a large Folio, measuring roughly 13.5 by 8.5 inches, with pages assembled from folded sheets of paper. It was sold unbound, allowing owners to commission custom bindings, which explains the variety in surviving copies. Approximately 750 copies were printed, of which around 235 are known to survive today, primarily held in institutions like the British Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Bodleian Library. No two surviving copies are identical due to the common practice of making corrections during the print run, creating multiple "states" of certain pages. The most celebrated copies, such as the Vincent First Folio at the Folger Shakespeare Library, are often distinguished by their provenance, marginalia, or unique condition.

Modern editions and availability

While original copies are among the world's most valuable printed books, the text is widely accessible through numerous modern scholarly editions. Institutions like the Folger Shakespeare Library and the British Library have undertaken high-resolution digital imaging projects, making complete copies viewable online. Major print editions, such as the Arden Shakespeare, the Oxford Shakespeare, and the Norton Shakespeare, all use the 1623 publication as a foundational text, collating it with earlier Quarto versions. In 2023, global events marked the 400th anniversary of its publication, with exhibitions at venues including the British Museum and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon. Category:1623 books Category:English Renaissance plays Category:Collections of plays