John Heminges and Henry Condell, members of Shakespeare’s acting company, The King’s Men, put together the First Folio “to keep the memory of so worthy a Friend and Fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare” and present a definitive edition of his plays rather than the many stolen copies that were circulating at the time – pirated much as movies are today.īefore the First Folio, Shakespeare’s plays were printed individually in cheap, flimsy quartos – and 18 of the plays in the First Folio had never previously been printed, even as quartos. “We would never have watched Rosalind and Orlando fall in love in the forest of Arden or a sleepwalking Lady Macbeth try to wash the blood of the murdered Duncan from her hands.” “Without the First Folio, we would never have heard anyone say ‘By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes’, or ‘If music be the food of love, play on’, or ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears’, or ‘O brave new world, that has such people in it’, or ‘All the world’s a stage, and all the people in it merely players’,” said Helen Vincent, head of the rare books, maps and music collection at the National Library of Scotland. The plays in the collection had been written and performed between the early 1590s and 1613. ![]() There are only about 230 copies, three of which are held in libraries at Glasgow University, the National Library of Scotland, and Mount Stuart House on the Isle of Bute.Ībout 750 editions of the First Folio were printed in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. Prized copies of the First Folio – the first collected edition of his plays and now worth millions of pounds – can be seen by the public in Scotland this year as part of Folio400, a celebration of the 400th birthday of its publication. Plays such as Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night are only staged today because of their inclusion in the book while, without it, other classics including Antony And Cleopatra, As You Like It, The Taming Of The Shrew and Julius Caesar would also be lost. A compilation of 36 of William Shakespeare’s plays, about half never recorded before, which will soon celebrate its 400th anniversary with rare appearances for treasured copies. Theatregoers – or anyone with a passing interest in culture – might well choose the First Folio. Perhaps the Wealth Of Nations by Adam Smith has a claim to be the most historically influential book. Or Charles Darwin’s On The Origins Of Species. There is the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, of course. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Information An icon of an information logo. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. ![]() Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. ![]() Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across.
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