First folio

Thomas Pavier

In 1616, the English playwright Ben Johnson published a volume of his works, "Ben Johnson's Works." The book was a success.

Noticing this, the publisher Thomas Pavier decided to make the same publication of Shakespeare's works. Given this goal, he began to redeem the rights to publish his plays. Even earlier, he printed Henry V , bought the rights to Titus Andronicus . In 1608, he published The Yorkshire Tragedy as a work by Shakespeare.

Pavier prepared a collection of ten highly dubious plays:

• Henry VI, part 2 ("pirate" text);
• Henry VI, part 3 ("pirate" text);
• " Pericles ";
• " Yorkshire tragedy " (authorship not established);
• "The Merchant of Venice ";
• Windsor Mockers
• “ King Lear ” (“pirate” text);
• “ Henry V ” (“pirate” text)
• "Sir John Oldcastle" (1st part, a play by M. Drayton and others);
• " A Midsummer Night's Dream ."

Shakespeare's friends in the troupe learned about Pavier’s intentions and, using their connections, forced him to abandon this idea.

But everything was already printed. Then, in order not to lose money, the publisher decided on a new scam: he printed the title pages separately and put the old release dates on them. A Midsummer Night's Dream came out with a date of 1600, King Lear and Henry V with a date of 1608.

Creating the First Folio

Shakespeare's companions in the troupe themselves decided to complete the publication of his plays. Actors John Heming and Henry Condel, who then led the troupe, with the help of Ben Johnson, took up this. A syndicate of four publishers was created to print the book. It included William Jaggard, Edward Blount, John Smithyk, William Aspley.

To begin with, it was necessary to buy the rights to plays previously released and now owned by law from various publishers. It was possible to do this in relation to all plays, with the exception of one - Pericles .

Next, it was necessary to be able to understand the texts and not reprint the distorted "pirate" publications that appeared throughout Shakespeare's creative career. Heming and Condel, who themselves played in Shakespeare's plays and could judge the authenticity of the texts, took up this. But there were eighteen more plays that had never been published before. On the complexity of that work with task texts, Heming and Condel later wrote in the preface to the folio:

“We admit, it would be desirable for the author himself to live up to this time and be able to observe the printing of his works, but since death was destined to deprive him of this opportunity, we ask you not to envy us, his friends, who have taken care and the work of collecting and printing his plays, including those that had previously been distorted in various stolen and illegally obtained texts, mutilated and disfigured by rogues and thieves who fraudulently published them; even these plays are now presented to your attention cured, and all of their parts are in perfect order: along with them here are given in full composition and all his other plays in the form in which they were created by their creator. "

The publication has been prepared for at least a year. In 1623 it was published.

Thirty-six pieces published in the First Folio were printed in the order given below. The plays published in this publication for the first time are marked with an asterisk (*). Each play is accompanied by a description of the sources of the text.

Comedy

• 1 Storm * - the play was put in a set from a manuscript prepared by Ralph Crane, a professional scribe hired by the troupe. Crane achieved amazing results by dividing the play into acts and scenes, often using brackets and hyphens and other identifiable features.
• 2 Two Veronets * - another manuscript prepared by Ralph Crane.
• 3 Windsor Mockers - Crane's job again.
• 4 Measure for measure * - perhaps again the manuscript of Crane.
• 5 A comedy of errors * - possibly typed from a Shakespeare draft autograph, with a few remarks added.
• 6 A lot of noise from nothing - typed from a copy from a quarto, a little tweaked.
• 7 The fruitless efforts of love - typed from an edited copy of Q1.
• 8 A Midsummer Night's Dream - typed from a copy of Q2, with a significant number of remarks, possibly used as a prompter.
• 9 Merchant of Venice - typed from a slightly edited and revised copy of Q1.
• 10 How do you like it * - typed from a quality manuscript, with a few remarks added by the prompter.
• 11 The Taming of the Shrew * - typed from a draft manuscript of Shakespeare, with the addition of some remarks, possibly as preparation for using the text as a prompter.
• 12 The end - the crown of business * - most likely recruited from Shakespeare's drafts.
• 13 twelfth night *
• 14 The Winter's Tale * is another manuscript edited by Ralph Crane.

Chronicles

• 15 King John * - it is unclear: the prompter or draft autograph.
• 16 Richard II - typed with Q3 and Q5, texts corrected by prompter copy.
• 17 Henry IV, part 1 - typed from an edited copy of Q5.
• 18 Henry IV, part 2 - it is not entirely clear: a certain combination of manuscript and quarto text.
• 19 Henry V - typed from a draft of Shakespeare.
• 20 Henry VI, part 1 * - it looks like this is a list from the author's manuscript with the addition of remarks.
• 21 Henry VI, part 2 - perhaps a Shakespeare manuscript used as a prompter.
• 22 Henry VI, part 3 - like the previous text, perhaps a Shakespeare manuscript used as a prompter.
• 23 Richard III - a difficult case: it may have been typed in part from Q3, and partly from Q6, corrected for a manuscript (possibly a draft).
• 24 Henry VIII * - typed from the final manuscript of Shakespeare.

Tragedies

• 25 Troilus and Cressida - perhaps typed from a quarto text verified with Shakespeare's draft papers.
• 26 Coriolanus * - typed from a high-quality authorized manuscript.
• 27 Tit Andronic - typed from a copy of Q3, which may have been a prompter.
• 28 Romeo and Juliet - essentially a reprint of the text Q3.
• 29 Timon of Athens *
• 30 Julius Caesar * - typed from the prompter copy or its copy.
• 31 Macbeth * - possibly recruited from a prompter.
• 32 Hamlet is one of the most difficult problems of the First folio: most likely, a combination of Q2 and handwritten texts was typed.
• 33 King Lear is also a big problem: obviously, it was typed mainly with Q1, but when reconciling with Q2 and with corrections for the prompter copy.
• 34 Othello - probably typed with Q1 and verified with a quality manuscript.
• 35 Anthony and Cleopatra *
• 36 Cymbelin * - perhaps another work by Ralph Crane or an official prompter.

The tragedy of Troilus and Cressida was originally supposed to follow Romeo and Juliet, but the press was discontinued, possibly due to a conflict over the rights to the play. The place of Troilus and Cressida was taken by Timon of Athens. Later, when the legal dispute was resolved, the play was printed first in tragedies.

• The book was printed the size of a full printed sheet, which the printers then designated in Latin “in folio”.
• The publication includes thirty-six plays. Subsequently, the thirty-seventh play - Pericles , and later the thirty-eighth - Two Noble Relatives , began to be included in Shakespeare’s collected works.
• The 1623 folio contains 998 large format pages. The text is printed in two columns.
• The circulation was probably about 750 copies. About 230 copies have survived to our time, and 82 of them are stored in the Shakespeare Folger library .

• Second folio
• Third folio
• Fourth folio

• Anikst A.A. Shakespeare . - M.: “ Young Guard ”, 1964.
• The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's First Folio: [ eng. ] / Edited by Emma Smith. - Cambridge University Press, 2016 .-- 216 p. - (Cambridge Companions to Literature). - ISBN 978-1-107-09878-7 .
• Smith E. Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book: [ eng. ] . - Oxford University Press, 2016 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 978-0-19-875436-7 .

• Electronic Facsimile of the First Folio at rarebookroom.org
• The First Folio Electronic Facsimile at books.google.com
• Facsimile of 1910