Lyons argues that this was partly due to the publisher, John Harrison's, desire to capitalize on the poems' association with Ovid: the Greek classics were sold in octavo, so printing Shakespeare's poetry in the same format would strengthen the association. In The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's First Folio, Tara L. 1595–96 ( Venus and Adonis) and 1598 ( The Rape of Lucrece), Shakespeare's narrative poems were published in octavo. Octavos, though nominally cheaper to produce, were somewhat different. Customers who wanted to keep a particular play would have to have it bound, and would typically bind several related or miscellany plays into one volume. These editions were primarily intended to be cheap and convenient, and read until worn out or repurposed as wrapping paper (or worse), rather than high quality objects kept in a library. Henry Fitzgeffrey, Certain Elegies (1618)Įditions of individual plays were typically published in quarto and could be bought for 6 d (equivalent to £5 in 2021) without a binding. Since the cost of paper represented about 50-75% of a book's total production costs, octavos were generally cheaper to manufacture than quartos, and a common way to reduce publishing costs was to reduce the number of pages needed by compressing (using two columns or a smaller typeface) or abbreviating the text. Octavos-made by folding a sheet of the same size three times, forming 8 leaves with 16 pages-were about half as large as a quarto. The average quarto measured 7 by 9 inches (18 by 23 cm) and was typically made up of 9 sheets, giving 72 total pages.
The quarto format was made by folding a large sheet of printing paper twice, forming 4 leaves with 8 pages.
Of the 23 editions of the poems, 16 were published in octavo the rest, and almost all of the editions of the plays, were printed in quarto. Counting by number of editions published before 1623, the best-selling works were Venus and Adonis (12 editions), The Rape of Lucrece (6 editions), and Henry IV, Part 1 (6 editions). Of these, 23 are his poetry and the remaining 55 his plays. Shakespeare's works-both poetic and dramatic-had a rich history in print before the publication of the First Folio: from the first publications of Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), 78 individual printed editions of his works are known. 1610–13, William Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon, on 23 April 1616, and was buried in the chancel of the Church of the Holy Trinity two days later. More than one third of the extant copies are housed at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which is home to a total of 82 First Folios.īackground Memorial to William Shakespeare in the Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbeyįurther information: Shakespeare's life, funerary monument, reputation, and plays in quartoĪfter a long career as an actor, dramatist, and sharer in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) from c. Out of perhaps 750 copies printed, 235 are known to remain, most of which are kept in either public archives or private collections. The Folio includes all of the plays generally accepted to be Shakespeare's, with the exception of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Edward III, and the two lost plays, Cardenio and Love's Labour's Won.
Eighteen of the plays in the First Folio, including The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Measure for Measure among others, are not known to have been previously printed. It was dedicated to the "incomparable pair of brethren" William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke and his brother Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (later 4th Earl of Pembroke).Īlthough 19 of Shakespeare's plays had been published in quarto before 1623, the First Folio is arguably the only reliable text for about 20 of the plays, and a valuable source text for many of those previously published. Printed in folio format and containing 36 of Shakespeare's plays, it was prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies at Wikisource
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