William Shakespeare's First Folio in Modern Type

by William Shakespeare

Overview

The First Folio is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, published in 1623 as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. The contents of the book were compiled by Shakespeare's friends and colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell, both actors in the King's Men, the playing company for which Shakespeare wrote. The pair emphasized that the book was meant to replace earlier publications, which they characterised as "stol'n and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by frauds and stealths of injurious impostors," asserting that Shakespeare's true words "are now offer'd to your view cured, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers as he conceived them."

Their publication included thirty-six of Shakespeare's plays. Without it, eighteen of the plays, including Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, and Measure for Measure, might not have survived.

Facsimile copies of the First Folio are available in print and online, but the age of the original pages along with their uneven printing and rather primitive typesetting make them difficult to read. Setting the First Folio in modern type makes Shakespeare's original works more accessible to modern readers; actually using the First Folio gives modern players and directors a more accurate understanding of how Shakespeare intended the plays to be acted and produced. As Megan Burnett of Bellarmine University writes, "Using a First Folio text can be a most thrilling and rewarding experience for the director, the actors, and the audience. Actors taught to look for and use the clues in a First Folio text are empowered to make fresh and exciting choices for their characters, mentally, vocally and physically, making the performance more entertaining and interesting for the production team, the acting company, and, most importantly, for the audience."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781434104540
Publisher:	Waking Lion Press
Publication date:	10/23/2020
Pages:	1174
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 2.29(d)

About the Author

Widely esteemed as the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an actor and theatrical producer in addition to writing plays and sonnets. Dubbed "The Bard of Avon," Shakespeare oversaw the building of the Globe Theatre in London, where a number of his plays were staged, the best-known of which include Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth. The First Folio, a printed book of 36 of his comedies, tragedies, and history plays, was published in 1623.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

Publisher's Preface vii

[The Epistle Dedicatory] xi

To the Great Variety of Readers xiii

To the Memory of My Beloved, the Author Mr. William Shakespeare: and What He Hath Left Us xiv

Upon the Lines and Life of the Famous Scenic Poet, Master William Shakespeare xvi

A Catalogue of the Several Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies Contained in This Volume xvii

To the Memory of the Deceased Author Master W. Shakespeare xviii

The Works of William Shakespeare, Containing All His Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies 1

The Tempest 3

The Two Gentlemen of Verona 28

The Merry Wives of Windsor 53

Measure for Measure 82

The Comedy of Errors 113

Much Ado about Nothing 133

Love's Labour's Lost 161

A Midsummer Night's Dream 192

The Merchant of Venice 215

As You Like It 244

The Taming of the Shrew 274

All's Well That Ends Well 303

Twelfth Night 335

The Winter's Tale 362

King John 398

King Richard the Second 427

Henry the Fourth, Part One 457

Henry the Fourth, Part Two 491

Henry the Fifth 527

Henry the Sixth, Part One 562

Henry the Sixth, Part Two 593

Henry the Sixth, Part Three 628

Richard the Third 662

Henry the Eighth 703

Troylus and Cressida 740

Coriolanus 777

Titus Andronicus 817

Romeo and Juliet 845

Tymon of Athens 878

Julius Caesar 906

Macbeth 935

Hamlet 962

King Lear 1003

Othello 1038

Anthony and Cleopatra 1077

Cymbeline 1115