Their texts are extremely corrupt as a result of their reconstruction from memory by a member, or members, of their cast. Scholars have mainly sought to determine the nature of the copy of which the printers made use. The chief types of copy which have been distinguished are: 1.
The fullest accounts of F1 are W. View all related items in Oxford Reference ». Search for: 'folios and quartos, Shakespearian' in Oxford Reference ».
All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice. Oxford Reference. Publications Pages Publications Pages. Recently viewed 0 Save Search. A folio is a large book in which printed sheets are folded in half only once, creating two double-sided leaves or four pages. Folios were more expensive and far more prestigious than quartos. Shakespeare's friendly rival Ben Jonson had previously published his own plays with his poems in a folio format book.
The First Folio of Shakespeare, however, is the earliest folio consisting only of an author's plays. The First Folio groups the plays for the first time into comedies, histories, and tragedies, and it includes the Martin Droeshout portrait of Shakespeare, generally considered an image close to nature because it was approved by those who knew him.
There are 36 plays in the First Folio. Learn more about the First Folio. The First Folio sold well enough that it was followed in , nine years later, by the Second Folio, then in by the Third Folio and in by the Fourth Folio. The latter two added many new plays, most of which are not today considered to be by Shakespeare.
Quarto editions of the plays continued to be produced as well. Those published in the late s, after the restoration of the English monarchy, include drastic changes and "improvements" reflecting the preferences of that time. Shakespeare's plays, as printed in the First Folio and the early quartos, presented a challenge to later editors, in part because of the great variations between some quartos and the First Folio. In , Nicholas Rowe, the first editor of Shakespeare's plays in the modern sense, added act and scene divisions to every play, introduced exits and entrances based on the sense of the text, and included lists of the characters, or dramatis personae.
Following Rowe, a long line of major editors produced editions of the plays that reflected the scholarship and thinking of their time. Today, major print editions of the plays include the Arden, Riverside, Oxford, and Cambridge editions, as well as the current Folger editions , the most commonly used in American classrooms. The Folger Shakespeare Library offers Folger editions of the plays in print or digital formats, including downloadable, searchable Folger Digital Texts , which are available for free, and the Luminary Shakespeare apps.
We also offer fully realized Folger Theatre audio recordings of some of the plays. Editions of Shakespeare, from miniature volumes in traveling cases to large illustrated tomes, proliferated during the 19th century. It was even possible to read Shakespeare in "parts"—paper editions that were published serially.
In the 19th and early 20th century, school primers, including the McGuffey Readers, included small excerpts from the plays for recitation. Classroom editions of the plays appeared as English literature became a standard school subject.
Shakespeare has been translated and published in dozens of languages, both as separate plays and as collected works. Teaching Shakespeare: A Handbook for Teachers. Left: The frontispiece of the quarto edition of Hamlet. Source: Shakespeare Quarto Facsimiles, No. Introduction by W. To print and sell a play in book form was to give rival acting troupes and theatergoers access to the script, thereby diminishing its potential to profit from stage performances. Nevertheless, unscrupulous publishers sometimes bought copies of plays from equally unscrupulous actors who had obtained a handwritten copy of the play or had written it down from memory.
Occasionally, a publisher attended a play and copied the script himself while actors performed their parts. For example, publisher John Danter, hoping to make money by selling Romeo and Juliet , used notes taken during a performance of the play to piece together a copy of it for public sale.
These methods of acquiring a copy often resulted in the publication of scripts with many errors. To preserve the integrity of a play, the acting company that owned the script sometimes made its own arrangements to publish the text. Consequently, different printed versions of the play—some accurate, some inaccurate—were in circulation. Shakespeare's poetry also appeared in different versions. In at least one instance, a printer even published poems of other authors under Shakespeare's name in hopes of capitalizing on the magic of his byline.
The Quarto and Folio Formats There were two publishing formats for Shakespeare's works: quarto and folio. The difference between them was size. To visualize the pages, lay a sheet of typing paper before you. Place the lower edge against the top edge and crease the paper across. Next, place the folded sheet before you so that the crease is on the left.
The rectangular page you are looking at is the first page. Flip it to the left and the sheet will open onto the second and third pages.
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