Case I and II: The Publication of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. London: Printed by Isaac Jaggard, and Ed. Blount, 1623. The First Folio.

Published seven years after Shakespeare’s death, the First Folio is the first collected edition of the plays. It is also the first time that the works of a playwright, writing for the general public, were published in such a large and expensive format. It is displayed here alongside the four other books which were being produced during the same period in the printing house of William Jaggard. Although not a rare book in the strict sense of the word, since about 230 of an estimated print run of 750 copies survive, it is a highly significant, influential, and desirable book. It, along with the other three seventeenth-century folio editions on display in the next case, came to the Fisher Library upon its opening in 1973 as the gift of Sidney Fisher. It was then, and remains, the only copy in Canada.

The book is open to the table of contents page, which lists thirty-five plays and therefore does not include the last minute addition of Troilus and Cressida, inserted as an unnumbered section at the end of the Histories. In our copy, just discernible, an earlier owner has added the name of the play just above the first title (Coriolanus) in the Tragedies section. The omission is just one of many errors and press variants which have been extensively studied by scholars as a way of understanding Shakespeare’s texts in the context of the printing house practice of the time. Another manuscript correction on this page in our copy is the addition of the correct page number (277) for the beginning of the last play in the Comedies section. Through laborious comparison and collation, some 500 variants have been identified in copies of the First Folio, and the close scrutiny of such physical evidence as damaged type has made it possible to establish the exact sequence of printing of the plays.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the True Originall Copies. The second impression. London: Printed by Tho. Cotes, for Robert Allot, 1632. The Second Folio.

The fact that a second edition was called for within a decade is an indication that the book sold gratifyingly well for a large folio. By then most of the participants had died or assigned their rights to others, and only Aspley and Smethwick remained from the original partnership. None of the text was significantly edited, although some obvious errors were corrected, and some words and spellings modernized. But as in most reprints, the compositors introduced as many errors as they cured. The only material added was in the preliminaries, where four new commendatory poems were inserted. One of them (shown here), ‘An Epitaph on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. Shakespeare’, was John Milton’s first published poem.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies ... The third impression. And unto this impression is added seven playes. London: Printed for P.C., 1664. The Third Folio.

More than thirty years elapsed before another edition appeared. The Third Folio is the rarest of the four folios, probably owing to the fact that much of the stock was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666, just two years after publication of this edition. It is usually believed to have been issued twice, the second issue, with the 1664 title page as here, containing seven additional plays. First comes Pericles, omitted in 1623 for unknown reasons, but printed six times in 1609–1635 under Shakespeare’s name. The next two plays are The London Prodigal (falsely attributed to Shakespeare in the 1605 quarto) and Thomas Lord Cromwell (here misattributed for the first time). The fourth play is Sir John Oldcastle, misattributed to Shakespeare in the Pavier Quartos.

It is followed by The Puritan, or The Widow of Watling Street, attributed in 1607 to ‘W. S.’ (which was not necessarily intended to imply Shakespeare). In sixth place is A Yorkshire Tragedy, attributed to Shakespeare in both previous editions, and the last is Locrine, attributed in 1595 to ‘W. S.’ What those initials imply is again uncertain, because no play was published under Shakespeare’s name until 1598. Because the 1664 title included the names of the added plays there was no room for the portrait, which was therefore printed above Ben Jonson’s verse on the facing page to serve as a frontispiece. Our copy once belonged to Baron Horace de Landau, portions of whose vast library of over 80,000 books were sold by Sotheby’s in 1948.  Our copy was part of a set of four and was acquired by Dudley Colman, from whom it passed to Sidney Fisher.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Mr. William Shakespear’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies ... The fourth edition. London: Printed for H. Herringman, E. Brewster, and R. Bentley, 1685. The Fourth Folio. 

Twenty-one years elapsed before another edition was called for. The Fourth Folio of 1685 is a reprint of the Third (including the seven added plays). It was the last edition to be simply reprinted from its predecessor without explicit editorial intervention, before the eighteenth century ushered in the age of the multi-volume ‘scholarly’ editions, examples of which are on display in the Maclean Hunter Room on the first floor. The First, Second, and Fourth Folios shown here were all acquired for Sidney Fisher from a single collector, H. Harvey Frost, described in his obituary in 1969 as ‘the doyen of English book-collectors’, had made a fortune early in the century.

William Burton (1575-1645). The Description of Leicester Shire: Containing Matters of Antiquitye, Historye, Armorye, and Genealogy. London: Printed for John White, [1622].

 William Burton’s survey is one of three books of heraldry to be printed while the Shakespeare First Folio was in production. Complete with its engraved title page and foldout map, the Fisher’s copy has a particularly exciting provenance since it was previously owned by contemporary herald, Henry Lilly (1588/9-1638). Lilly has not only signed the work along with the title Rouge Dragon, a post he received in 1638, but has also extensively annotated and corrected sections of the text throughout in a beautiful italic hand.

Augustine Vincent (approx. 1584-1626). A Discouerie of Errours in the First Edition of the Catalogue of Nobility, published by Raphe Brooke. London: William Jaggard, 1622.

The antiquarian Augustine Vincent gradually rose in the heraldic ranks to become Windsor Herald in 1624.  His only printed work, shown here, offers a counter-response to Ralph Brooke’s work of heraldry (see case two) printed in 1619.  Of particular significance here is the role of the printer, William Jaggard. Near the start of Vincent’s work, Jaggard offers a full-scale defense of his production of Brooke’s work of 1619, arguing that the errors found within the earlier imprint came from Brooke and not him.       

Thomas Wilson (1563-1622). A Christian Dictionary. The Third Edition. London: Printed by William Jagga[r]d, 1622.

A graduate of Oxford and Church of England clergyman, Thomas Wilson would author various religious writings, including printed sermons, expositions, as well as the first English dictionary of the Bible. Shown here is a later edition of A Christian Dictionary, which was only recently acquired by the Fisher.  Bound in contemporary vellum, this is the rarest of the four siblings to be printed with the First Folio.

André Favyn. The Theater of Honour and Knight-hood. London: Printed by W. Jaggard, 1623.

André Favyn’s Le theatre d’honneur et de chevelarie (1620), which was translated into English as The Theatre of Honor, was the largest of the four siblings in production during the printing of the First Folio. The numerous heraldic images found in this first of two Fisher copies has been expertly hand-coloured and there is evidence on the copy’s front flyleaf of a London stationer checking that the book was complete. George Lathum (active 1620-1658) has signed and written ‘I warrant this book perfect’. This copy, like the Fisher’s First Folio, was previously owned by Sidney Fisher.