![]() Seen thus, with the implication that the plays will be made precious through this offering to the earls, the folio cements Shakespeare’s reputation by virtue of endorsement by its patrons. The pair are at pains to emphasise the lowly quality of their offering, likening the plays to the “leavened Cake” offered to the gods of many nations “that had not gummes & incense”. They urge the dedicatees to patronise the plays as they patronised their author, likening the plays to “Orphanes” in need of “Guardians”. In the first – the dedication to two of Shakespeare’s patrons, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke and Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery – Heminge and Condell refer humbly to Shakespeare’s plays as “trifles”. Heminge and Condell composed two prefatory notes that frame the book rather differently. Guide to the classics: Shakespeare’s sonnets - an honest account of love and a surprising portal to the man himself ![]() So if it’s not a rare book, what makes a First Folio so special? The way the book was presented provides some clues. Oxford’s Bodleian Library discarded its copy of the First Folio sometime in the 17th century, but in 1905 it was promptly snapped up again by its original owner! “New” copies turn up regularly, if not frequently: in 2006, 2014, and twice in 2016, for example. Meisei University in Japan holds 12 copies, and around 20 copies remain in private hands. These are held by the library they built for this purpose as a gift to the public – the Folger Shakespeare Library – in Washington, DC. Of these, a staggering 82 copies were collected by the American businessman Henry Folger and his wife Emily in the early 20th century. A popular estimate is 235 extant copies, though the Shakespeare Census project more specifically lists the locations of 228 substantively complete copies and a further 155 fragments (that is, copies with fewer than half their original leaves). Of the conjectured 750 copies printed, hundreds still survive. Plays published here for the first time included Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar and As You Like It.ĭespite the hefty price tag, the folio is not a rare book. The first published collection of Shakespeare’s plays, it was put together by his fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. ![]() The folio contains 36 Shakespeare plays – 18 of which had never been published before – along with two poems by Jonson that have significantly shaped Shakespeare’s reputation. Martin Droeshout’s engraving of Shakespeare.
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