Keyword: First Folio

First Folio

The First Folio is the first published collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Seven years after he died two of Shakespeare's friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, collected the plays and had them published in 1623.There were about 1,000 copies of the First Folio printed. It contained 36 plays, including all of Shakespeare's official plays except Pericles.

In addition to folios, early editions of Shakespeare's plays also came in quartos. A quarto contained one Shakespeare play. Eighteen of Shakespeare's plays were published in quarto editions before the First Folio was printed.

A quarto was created from standard size sheet of paper that was printed on each side. When folded in "quarters" it created 8 printed pages in total.

Back to the lesson >