Shakespeare First Folio (BPL copy G.174.1, Barton)

William Shakespeare, 1623

Held by Bates Hall, Boston Public Library, G.174.1catalogue record

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The First Folio is the first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays, printed in London in 1623, about seven years after his death. It holds 36 plays, arranged as comedies, histories and tragedies, and 18 of them had never been printed before, including The Tempest, Macbeth and Julius Caesar. Two of Shakespeare's colleagues, John Heminges and Henry Condell, gathered the texts. The scan here is the Boston Public Library copy, shelfmark G.174.1, digitised by the Internet Archive.

Where it happens

London Where the Folio was printed and published in 1623.¹²
Stratford-upon-Avon Where Shakespeare died in 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church.²
Oxford, Bodleian Library Received its copy in early 1624 and sold it later as a superseded edition.²
Boston Public Library Holds this copy in its Rare Books department.¹

Through time

1616Shakespeare dies at Stratford-upon-Avon.²
1622Printing of the Folio probably begins in February.²
1623The Folio is entered in the Stationers' Register on 8 November and published.²
1845Thomas Pennant Barton buys this copy from Thomas Rodd of London.¹
1860Barton privately prints a description of his copy as it stood about then or earlier.¹

Who is in it, and behind it

William Shakespeare author

He died at Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1616, seven years before the Folio appeared.²

John Heminges subject

Compiled the Folio's contents with Henry Condell; both were colleagues of Shakespeare in the King's Men.²

Henry Condell subject

Joint compiler of the Folio with John Heminges.²

Ben Jonson author

Wrote the poem 'To the Reader' that faces the portrait, and is among the contributors of commendatory verses.¹²

Martin Droeshout printer

The engraver of the portrait on the title page.²

Isaac Jaggard printer

Printed the book with Edward Blount; he did most of the work after his father William Jaggard, old and blind, died a month before it went on sale.¹²

Edward Blount printer

Bookseller and publisher who shared the venture with the Jaggards.¹²

Thomas Pennant Barton subject

Bought this copy from Thomas Rodd of London in 1845; the Library's Barton collection is named for him.¹

What it is about

Plays saved from loss

Eighteen of the 36 plays, including The Tempest and Macbeth, are not known to have been printed before the Folio.¹²

Folio as a prestige format

Plays usually came out as cheap quartos, while folio was reserved for books of lasting value, so printing plays this way made a claim for them.²

Replacing the earlier printings

The editors presented the Folio as the true text that supersedes stolen and maimed copies.²

No two copies alike

Corrections were made while printing was under way, so surviving copies differ, and this one has leaves supplied from other copies.¹²

Pages worth stopping at

Image 1The front pastedown over marbled paper, with the Barton Library armorial bookplate and Boston Public Library labels.¹
Image 7Ben Jonson's poem 'To the Reader', signed B. I., the page that faces the portrait.²
Image 8The title page with the Droeshout engraving of Shakespeare and the imprint 'Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed. Blount. 1623'.¹²
Image 10The opening of the dedication to the Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Montgomery, the 'incomparable pair of brethren'.¹²
Image 14Verses 'To the memory of my beloved, the Author', signed Ben Ionson, among the commendatory poems in the front matter.¹
Image 22'A Catalogue of the severall Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies', the Folio's table of contents, with page numbers.¹²
Image 24The first page of the first play, The Tempest, Actus primus, Scena prima.²

How it came to be here

Heminges and Condell, who prepared the book, said it replaced earlier printings they called stolen and surreptitious. The syndicate was Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, with William Aspley and John Smethwick as rights holders. Printing probably ran from February 1622 to November 1623. About 750 copies were printed and 235 are known to survive. The Boston copy was bought by Thomas Pennant Barton from Thomas Rodd of London in 1845, and the Library's description notes leaves reattached or supplied from other copies.