Picture of the cover on
the ' First Folio '
which contained Shakespeare's Plays
The First Folio
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE 'FIRST
FOLIO'
The "First
Folio" is of major importance to William Shakespeare as it
is the first collected edition of Shakespeare's plays
without which there would be no William Shakespeare!
Publishers used
the ' First Folio ' to print copies of the plays and other
Folios were printed in 1632, 1663, 1664 and 1685
WHAT IS A FOLIO?
A folio is a
Manuscript
A Folio is made
up of ' quires ' consisting of 6 leafs of paper folded in
half with text on both sides giving twelve pages of text
The pages are
sewn together
WHAT DID THE 'FIRST FOLIO'
CONTAIN'?
The first Folio
contained 36 of William Shakespeare's plays
The First Folio
consisted of 900 pages
It was entitled
"Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories & Tragedies".
A picture of the cover is shown at the top of the page
WHO COMPILED THE CONTENT FOR
THE 'FIRST FOLIO'?
Two of William
Shakespeare's friends and fellow actors, John Hemminge
and Henry Condell, were the editors of the collection
William
Shakespeare mentioned both actors in his will "my fellows
John Hemynges Richard Burbage & Henry Cundell," leaving them
26s..8d to "buy them Ringes."
They, no doubt,
had copies of the plays in
Quarto text in the
format of Fair or Foul copies
It was from
these copies that the content of the First Folio originated
The First Folio
was dedicated to two brothers, William and Philip, the sons
of the Earl of Pembroke and Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of
Pembroke
WHO PUBLISHED THE 'FIRST
FOLIO'?
The Printer and
Publisher of the 'First Folio' were William Jaggard and his
son Isaac with Ed. Blount
The 'First
Folio' was registered on 8th November 1623.
500 copies of
the ' First Folio ' were printed at the price of £1 for each
copy - approximately 238 known copies have survived
Publishers used
the ' First Folio ' to print copies of the plays and other
Folios were printed in 1632, 1663, 1664 and 1685
THE PICTURE OF WILLIAM
SHAKESPEARE ON THE 'FIRST FOLIO'
The picture
which appears on the First Folio is produced from a copper
engraving of a likeness of Shakespeare
It must be
remembered that during William Shakespeare's era that only
engravings were used to illustrate such documents, it was
not possible to reproduce paintings of portraits
The engraver of
this famous image of Shakespeare was called Martin Droeshout
(1601 - 1651)
It is a very odd
image! For those who like a mystery and more information
about the engraver click the following link
Droeshout Engraving
