What's Inside
This volume is the primary archive for the dramatic output of William Shakespeare. Compiled seven years after his death by two fellow actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, it gathers thirty-six works into a single, massive folio. It divides the output into three distinct categories: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Readers hold a curated selection that preserves texts which might have otherwise vanished into history. The collection acts as a formal record, standardising various earlier, messy versions of scripts into a unified state. It is not a singular narrative, but a broad catalogue of characters, kings, and clowns, preserved for posterity by those who performed them on stage.
Works & figures
- John Heminge
Actor who compiled and edited the collection for publication. (in “Shakespeare's First Folio”)
- Henry Condell
Actor who worked alongside Heminge to organize the manuscript. (in “Shakespeare's First Folio”)
- Ben Jonson
Poet who contributed a commemorative verse to the volume. (in “Shakespeare's First Folio”)
What it's really about
- Order vs. Chaos
- Social stability frequently collapses into war or madness.
- Political Legitimcy
- The weight of the crown versus the flawed man.
Why it's memorable
- Imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown.
- The life yet of his lines shall never out.
Where to start
Start with The Tempest to see why Heminge and Condell chose it as the collection's opener.
For your book club
- How did stage actors shape these texts compared to scholars?
- Why segregate the works into strictly defined generic blocks?