First Folio

The first complete edition of William Shakespeare's plays appeared in 1623, seven years after his death, in folio book format ( spine height of about 40 cm). It was edited by his colleagues John and Henry Condell Heminges ( the spelling of the name is uncertain and varied even at that time, such as John Heminge, Henrie Condell ), which Shakespeare must have been particularly attached, for he had them in his will money for the purchase of mourning rings left ( mourning rings were to the 18th century popular pieces of jewelry that should remember deceased ).

The pressure

The folio edition was titled Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, and was printed in about 750 copies of William and Isaac Jaggard and cost 15 shillings for an unbound copy and £ 1 for a hardback. There are still 229 copies, two thirds of them in the United States and of these, 82 in the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington.

There are no less than 40 different variants of this first folio edition. This is a consequence of that approach to the preparation. While the pressure was already running, the individual pages were proofread. Errors have been detected, they corrected it, but using the already finished, failed pages with. Thus, the resulting volumes are each a mixture of different corrected and uncorrected pages.

Today, printed facsimile editions are composed ideally of the best sites in each of the remaining folio volumes. The most important issue is the Norton Facsimile of Charlton Hinman from the year 1968.

A number of Shakespeare's plays were indeed already appeared as quarto edition, but the attempt was first made ​​in this book to bring out all the dramas together in an authorized version. As such, the Folio is now the most reliable scientific literature text and serves as the basis of modern editions, even if some more or less carefully printed copies were already to Shakespeare's lifetime, appeared.

Ben Jonson model

Drama texts were considered less literature in the 16th and early 17th centuries, as a raw material for theater performances, like a movie script, because here too interested consumers normally just the movie, not the text on the paper.

It was Ben Jonson, the first published in 1616 his own plays in an over thousand-page anthology and they also not only called pieces, but works ( works). This was a bold innovation, according to Jonson's assessment of his own importance in the cultural life.

Shakespeare Folio was then the second such company, and his colleagues gave assurances for Ben Jonson's support. A literary work was characterized at the time by the fact that it had one or more prefaces and a dedication. And so the First Folio could show these attributes. Ben Jonson wrote the preface to the reader, in addition, the collection of dramas is initiated by some Lobgedichte, including the famous lines from Ben Jonson, in which he referred to Shakespeare as timeless poet ( Hey what not of an age but for all time ). Dedicated it to the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Montgomery, and the large and diverse readership.

Heminge and Condell reported in another preface by their own experience with William Shakespeare and tell how, in his mind and hands worked together, and how he brought his thoughts with such a light hand on paper, that he never had to correct something.

In addition, the book by a portrait of Shakespeare on the title page is decorated (not outside, the leather binding could not be printed), an engraving by Martin Droeshout (pronounced [ dru ː ʃaʊt ] ). This is in addition to the probably also authentic Chandos portrait, the only contemporary image of Shakespeare, we know. Other photos are sprung from either the imagination, or are inspired copies of Droeshout - portraits.

Issue Combinatorial considerations

The Book of the First Folio, ( known in the literature as F1), includes 36 dramas of Shakespeare, compiled after the preface of fellow actor Heminges and Condell ( collected ) were and at least five members of the printer guild ( stationers ) William Jaggard, his son Isaac must have been Jaggard, Edward Blount, William Aspley and John Smethwick printed. William Jaggards participation appeared to some authorities unusual because not only its more problematic relationship to the work - canon Shakespeare is known, but his suspicious compilation in " The Passionate Pilgrim " in 1599, 1612 and 1619, out of ten wrong Shakespeare plays (some with false data and title pages). It is assumed that the printing of the First Folio was such a daunting task even for those days, that she was unable to cope without the experience of Jaggardschen printing house. ( William Jaggard was 1623 already old, weak and blind and died a month before the completion of the First Folio ). The First Folio can not be regarded as a fundamentally better or maßgeblicherer text than the previous Quartos. In many of the pieces of the First Folio exuberant lines, misprints and text distortions can, as in the Quartos be determined.

It is not known how Heminges and Condell have reached half of the hitherto unpublished works of Shakespeare. The list of works is not fully based on current knowledge, it lacks dramas such as Pericles and the two noble cousins. We also do not know how many more pieces Shakespeare wrote that were not published and are lost. But we must assume that the editors could exercise the utmost care in this commemorative edition of their famous colleagues.

The Folio is one of the most important books of the English, perhaps even of the entire literature, Without qualifying them we today possess not even the half of the plays of Shakespeare ' knowledge. A second edition of the Folio appeared in 1632 ( Second Folio, in literary studies as F2 known ), the third ( F3 Third Folio, the first time the drama of Pericles contains ) in 1663, and the fourth (F4 ) 1685.

The list of pieces

( in original spelling )

COME THIS. The Tempest The Two Gentlemen of Verona The Merry Wiues of Windsor Measvre, For Measure The Comedie of Errors Much adoe about Nothing Loues Labour 's lost A Midsummer Nights Dreame The Merchant of Venice As you like it The Taming of the Shrew All's Well, that Ends Well twelfe Night The Winters Tale HISTORIES. The life and death of King John The life and death of King Richard the Second The First Part of Henry the Fourth The Second Part of Henry the Fourth The Life of Henry the Fift The first Part of Henry the Sixt The Second Part of Henry the Sixt The Third Part of Henry the Sixt The Tragedie of Richard the Third The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight TRAGEDIES. The Tragedy of Coriolanus The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet The Life of Timon of Athens The Tragedy of Julius Caesar The Tragedy of Macbeth The Tragedy of Hamlet The Tragedy of King Lear The Tragedy of Othello The Tragedy of Anthonie and Cleopatra The Tragedy of Cymbeline

The names of the main cast in all these pieces (The Names of the principall Actors in all Playes thesis. ) William Shakespeare. Richard Burbadge. John Hemmings. Augustine Phillips. William Kempe. Thomas Poope. George Bryan. Henry Condell. William Slye. Richard Cowly. John Lowine. Samuell Crosse. Alexander Cooke. Samuel Gilburne. Robert Armin.

The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida is not mentioned in the table of contents, but is in issue between the histories and tragedies. Probably the piece has been there only added later, after the rest of the book was already set.