TABLE OF CONTENTS Part One: Folios ...... 2 Part Two: Quartos ...... 6 Part Three: Sources ...... 8 PART ONE: FOLIOS WHAT IS A FOLIO? A folio is a printed play or book that was created using a printing method that places four pages of text on one large sheet of paper. The paper is then folded in half and bound into a large book. In Shakespeare’s time, a folio printing was expensive and typically reserved for prestigious works. Instead, most of Shakespeare’s works were handwritten during the production, and remained unpublisehd when he died.

The first folio including 18 of Shakespeare’s plays A 1600s printing press, what was used to create the first folios THE FIRST FOLIO The First Folio refers to the first published version of Shakespeare’s texts. Published in 1623—seven years after Shakespeare’s death—the First Folio was the most complete collection of Shakespeare plays to that date. Without the First Folio, eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays would have been lost forever, because they were printed for the first time in this collection. WHO PUT IT ALL TOGETHER? Two of Shakespeare’s fellow actors and friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, are responsible for assembling the 36 plays that make up the First Folio. These two individuals had rare access to hand-written scripts and the individual prompt books of the actors. This was important because some earlier editions of Shakespeare’s plays had been released in a smaller, less expensive format.

As the editors say in the forward to the First Folio, these earlier editions were “abused with diverse, stolen, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealths of injurious imposters...” (Heminge and Condell).

A plaque at the bottom of a memorial to Heminge and Condell located in St Mary Aldermanbury Garden in London.

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY • FIRST FOLIO STUDY GUIDE • PAGE 3 How did actors know what to say before the play was printed in a folio? In Shakespeare’s time printing was expensive and reserved for prestigious works. Actors would receive a hand-written prompt book that only included their lines. In rehearsals actors would have to listen to their scene partner to figure out whose line was next.

Was’t You He Is it my line? rescued? I think it’s mine

HOW TO FOLD YOUR OWN FOLIO PRINTING STEP 1: STEP 2: Divide your paper into 4 boxes. Label the box Write your play in the boxes, starting with page in the top left Page 1. Then, moving counter one, all the way to page 4. clockwise, label the rest of the pages.

STEP 3: STEP 4: Fold your paper in half horizontally. Fold your paper in half vertically.

And now you have your very own folio printing!

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY • FIRST FOLIO STUDY GUIDE • PAGE 4 HOW MUCH DOES A FOLIO COST? When it was released in 1623, the First Folio sold for 1 pound (or $190 today). With approximately only 228 original copies in existence, it is considered one of the world’s most rare books. In fact, a copy sold at a NYC auction in 2001 for $6,160,000. HOW IS THE FIRST FOLIO DIFFERENT THAN THE VERSION WE READ TODAY? Simply put, the English language has changed a lot since Shakespeare was alive, when pelling was very different from what it is today. For example, take a look at the first lines of Much Ado About Nothing to see some major differences: First Folio Version The Version Used Today LEONATO LEONATO I learne in this Letter, that Don Peter of Arragon, I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes comes this night to Messina this night to Messina.

MESSENGER MESSENGER He is very neere by this: he was not three Leagues He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off off when I left him when I left him.

LEONATO LEONATO How many Gentlemen haue you lost in this action? How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?

MESSENGER MESSENGER But few of any sort, and none of name But few of any sort, and none of name.

LEONATO LEONATO A victorie is twice it selfe, when the atchieuer A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers: I finde heere, that brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Peter hath bestowed much honor on a yong Don Pedro hathbestowed much honour on a young Florentine, called Claudio. Florentine called Claudio.

Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Scene 1 Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Scene 1

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY • FIRST FOLIO STUDY GUIDE • PAGE 5 PART TWO: QUARTOS WHAT ARE QUARTOS? Quartos were smaller book sized publications popular in Shakespeare’s time. 19 of Shakespeare’s plays were published as quartos during his lifetime. Because quartos were smaller, they were cheaper to print, and more widely available.

A page from a quarto of Hamlet WHAT’S IN AN ERROR? Although quartos gave people access to Shakespeare’s text, many of these books contained major errors and omissions. For example, a “bad quarto” of Hamlet published in 1603 shows the famous To be, or not to be speech as: “To be, or not to be, I there’s the point, To die, to sleep, is that all? I all: No, to sleep, to dream, I mary there it goes, For in that dream of death, when we awake, And born before an everlasting judge, From whence no passenger ever returned...” Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1

Compare it with the First Folio edition of 1623: “To be, or not to be, that is the Question: Whether ‘tis Nobler in the mind to suffer The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them; to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep, to say we end The heartache, and the thousand Natural shocks That Flesh is heir to?” Hamlet, Act III, Scene 1

All these errors inspired John Heminge and Henry Condell to create the First Folio after Shakespeares’ death and preserve the text as it was written.

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY • FIRST FOLIO STUDY GUIDE • PAGE 7 PART THREE: SOURCES SOURCES TEACHING SHAKESPEARE by Rex Gibson

Shakespeare for Dummies by John Doyle (CSC Artistic Director) and Ray Lischner

The Friendly Shakespeare by Norrie Epstein

The Genius of Shakespeare by Jonathan Bate

Brush Up Your Shakespeare! by Michael Macrone

Essential Shakespeare Handbook by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding

William Shakespeare and The Globe written and illustrated by Aliki

Eye Witness Shakespeare written by Peter Chrisp, photographed by Steve Teague ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This guide was created by Kathleen Dorman in 2012, and updated by Marella Martin Koch and Rachael Langton in 2020.

CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY • FIRST FOLIO STUDY GUIDE • PAGE 9 Classic Stage Company (CSC) is the award-winning Off-Broadway theater committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for contemporary audiences. Founded in 1967, CSC uses works of the past as a way to engage in the issues of today. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in American theater, it has become the home to New York’s finest established and emerging artists, the place where they gather to grapple with the great works of the world’s repertory.

The National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest presents Shakespeare in American Communities. CSC is one of 40 professional theater companies selected to participate in bringing the finest productions of Shakespeare to middle- and high-school students in communities across the United States. This is the twelfth year of this national program, the largest tour of Shakespeare in American history.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Special thanks to the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting Classic Stage Company.

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