![]() But we wouldn’t have the sense of significance, weight (literally), and permanence that this large volume gives to the author. Smith said: “Without the First Folio, we would have some of Shakespeare’s plays, scattered in individual editions. Rarely a day goes by when you don’t hear a phrase from a Shakespeare play being spoken – often without the speaker realising they are quoting Shakespeare,” said Coles. But the book is foundational to our language. “No First Folio is the same, they all have different histories and stories. It took “a long time to become a book of value”, said Coles, but a pristine copy, with all its original leaves intact, fetched nearly $10m at auction in 2020. Of the surviving copies, 50 are in the UK and 149 in the US. skip past newsletter promotionĪ copy of the First Folio is displayed at Christie’s in London, January 2020. The target market was “discerning and wealthy theatregoers”, according to Coles. Some were bound with the skin of calf, sheep or goat, costing a sovereign, but most were left unbound. The original register, still stored at the hall, records “Master William Shakespeare’s comedies, histories and tragedies”, including The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Antony and Cleopatra.Ībout 700 to 750 copies of the First Folio were produced. ![]() The printing process was “very labour intensive in a very nasty working environment”, said Coles, but by November 1623 they were ready to go on sale.įirst the 18 unpublished plays had to be signed off by the “master of revels” at Stationers’ Hall in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral. The title page of the First Folio was a portrait of Shakespeare made by engraving very fine lines into a sheet of copper. ![]() Many mistakes were made, and because paper was so costly the mistakes survived. The trio took the edited scripts to a respected printing shop where compositors copied them into metal type. ![]()
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