First Folio

In the exhibit in the museum leading into Shakespeare's Birthplace rests a beautiful copy of the First Folio.


Published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death in 1616, the First Folio collects 36 of Shakespeare's plays into one volume. Shakespeare's close friends and colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell thought the volume would be a fitting tribute to Shakespeare's genius, and they worked very hard to bring the project to fruition. They compiled the 36 plays, and members of the Stationers Company, including Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard (a father and son), published it. The printing was done between 1621 and 1623. When it went on sale in 1623, the cost was about one pound, roughly the equivalent of about $150 today.

At the beginning of the First Folio is the Droeshout Engraving, one of three surviving likenesses of Shakespeare. The Droeshout Engraving has quite a bit of controversy surrounding it -- people claim that it looks nothing like Shakespeare, that it's horrendous, out of proportion, and shoddy workmanship. The artist, Martin Droeshout, came from a family of engravers and artists and would have been well-trained, but he was relatively inexperienced when he created the piece, making some people wonder why on earth he was given the job. However...Heminges and Condell loved the copper engraving and considered it a fine representation of their friend William. There are even some conspiracy theories that the engraving holds hidden clues about Shakespeare--and whether or not he really was the author of the 36 plays the First Folio contained. (Of course he was! Such theories are bunk.)
Shakespeare's colleague Ben Jonson penned the preface that accompanied the engraving of Shakespeare on the title page of the First Folio:


To the Reader.
This Figure, that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the Graver had a strifewith Nature,
to out-doo the life :
O, could he but have drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face ; the Print would then surpasse
All, that was ever writ in brasse.
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke
Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

Ben Jonson's

Commendation of the

Droeshout engraving

First published 1623.

The First Folio has a rich and fascinating history! Be sure to research it and learn more about it. When the eighth graders go to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington D.C. in April, they will see a First Folio with their own eyes! According to the Folger's website, the Folger has the largest collection of First Folios, about a third of those still in existence -- 79 copies!

Here are some great First Folio links:
Download the First Folio on Project Gutenburg!
Look at all the Prefatory Material To The First Folio, 1623