DOCSLIB.ORG

First Folios the FIRST FOLIO the First Folio Refers to the First Published Version of Shakespeare’S Texts

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

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. classicstage.org.
Recommended publications
  • Proem Shakespeare S 'Plaies and Poems"

    Proem Shakespeare S 'Plaies and Poems"

    Proem Shakespeare s 'Plaies and Poems" In 1640, the publisher John Benson presents to his English reading public a Shakespeare who is now largely lost to us: the national author of poems and plays. By printing his modest octavo edition of the Poems: Written By Wil. Shake-speare. Gent., Benson curiously aims to complement the 1623 printing venture of Shakespeare's theatre colleagues, John Heminge and Henry Condell , who had presented Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies in their monumental First Folio. Thus, in his own Dedicatory Epistle "To the Reader," Benson remarks that he presents "some excellent and sweetly composed Poems," which "had nor the fortune by reason of their lnfancie in his death, to have the due accommodation of proportionable glory, with the rest of his everliving Workes" (*2r). Indeed, as recent scholarship demonstrates, Benson boldly prints his octavo Poems on the model ofHeminge and Condell 's Folio Plays. ' Nor simply does Benson's volume share its primer, Thomas Cores, wirh rhe 1632 Folio, bur both editions begin with an identical format: an engraved portrait of the author; a dedicatory epistle "To the Reader"; and a set of commendatory verses, with Leonard Digges contributing an impor­ tant celebratory poem to both volumes. Benson's engraving by William Marshall even derives from the famous Martin Droeshout engraving in the First Folio, and six of the eight lines beneath Benson's engraving are borrowed from Ben Jonson's famed memorial poem to Shakespeare in char volume. Accordingly, Benson rakes his publishing goal from Heminge and Conde!!. They aim to "keepe the memory of such worthy a Friend, & Fellow alive" (Dedicatory Epistle to the earls ofPembroke and Montgomery, reprinted in Riverside, 94), while he aims "to be serviceable for the con­ tinuance of glory to the deserved Author" ("To the Reader," *2v).
  • First Folio Table of Contents the Tragedie of Cymbeline

    First Folio Table of Contents the Tragedie of Cymbeline

    THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE. by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Based on the Folio Text of 1623 DjVu Editions E-books © 2001, Global Language Resources, Inc. Shakespeare: First Folio Table of Contents The Tragedie of Cymbeline . 1 Actus Primus. Scoena Prima. 1 Scena Secunda. 3 Scena Tertia. 6 Scena Quarta. 7 Scena Quinta. 8 Scena Sexta. 12 Scena Septima. 14 Actus Secundus. Scena Prima. 20 Scena Secunda. 21 Scena Tertia. 22 Scena Quarta. 26 Actus Tertius. Scena Prima. 32 Scena Secunda. 34 Scena Tertia. 36 Scena Quarta. 38 Scena Quinta. 43 Scena Sexta. 47 Scena Septima. 48 Scena Octaua. 50 Actus Quartus. Scena Prima. 51 Scena Secunda. 51 Scena Tertia. 62 Scena Quarta. 63 Actus Quintus. Scena Prima. 65 Scena Secunda. 66 Scena Tertia. 67 Scena Quarta. 69 Scena Quinta. 74 - i - Shakespeare: First Folio The Tragedie of Cymbeline The Tragedie of Cymbeline zz3 Actus Primus. Scoena Prima. 2 Enter two Gentlemen. 3 1.Gent. 4 You do not meet a man but Frownes. 5 Our bloods no more obey the Heauens 6 Then our Courtiers: 7 Still seeme, as do’s the Kings. 8 2 Gent. But what’s the matter? 9 1. His daughter, and the heire of’s kingdome (whom 10 He purpos’d to his wiues sole Sonne, a Widdow 11 That late he married) hath referr’d her selfe 12 Vnto a poore, but worthy Gentleman. She’s wedded, 13 Her Husband banish’d; she imprison’d, all 14 Is outward sorrow, though I thinke the King 15 Be touch’d at very heart. 16 2 None but the King? 17 1 He that hath lost her too: so is the Queene, 18 That most desir’d the Match.
  • Shakespeare's First Folio

    Shakespeare's First Folio

    SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO DR. SARAH HIGINBOTHAM GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW Fall 2016 F2 9:35-10:55 TR Clough 325 D4 1:35-2:55 TR Clough 127 Seven years after William Shakespeare died, one of the world’s most N 12:05-1:25 TR Skiles 308 important books was published: a collection of thirty-six of his plays E-Mail: [email protected] that we now call the “First Folio.” Without the First Folio, we would Office: Stephen C. Hall Building 009 not have Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of the Shrew, or two plays that have profoundly changed the way that I think, Measure for Measure and Twelfth Night. We also wouldn’t have the iconic stage direction, “exit, pursued by a bear” (The Winter’s Tale). As Georgia Tech phases out its MATERIALS physical library, and as the world celebrates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a First Folio tour, this course will investigate what the First Folio affords us in the twenty-first century. REQUIRED But while Shakespeare is our topic, our goals concern communication Henry V Folger Shakespeare Library, 2009 skills and critical thinking: you will learn to identify relevant questions Hamlet about an issue, synthesize multiple perspectives, assess the soundness of Folger Shakespeare Library, 2005 a position, revise your work based on feedback, and apply your research King Lear to real world issues. The course will also help you formulate and defend Modern Library Classics, 2009 your point of view via written essays, oral presentations, visual analysis, WOVENText and through electronic and nonverbal communication.
  • Romeo-And-Juliet-1596480840.Pdf

    Romeo-And-Juliet-1596480840.Pdf

    Romeo and Juliet by Rebecca Olson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v PREFACE vii INTRODUCTION x LIST OF MAIN CHARACTERS xvi ACT 1 1 ACT 2 43 ACT 3 80 ACT 4 122 ACT 5 146 GLOSSARY 169 CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE 180 RECOMMENDED CITATIONS 181 VERSIONING 183 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many thanks to Open Oregon State for publishing and funding this edition, and the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film for financial and administrative support. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival made our field trip to Ashland to see Othello both feasible and memorable. And we are much indebted to the teachers and students who took the time to answer our questions and share experiences and lesson plans—thank you! Tessa Barone, Justin Bennett, Ethan Heusser, Aleah Hobbs, and Benjamin Watts served as lead editors for the project. Shannon Fortier, a recent OSU graduate, donated her time and talents. Jac Longstreth (a Biochemistry and Biophysics major!) provided a great deal of research and editing support, funded by the URSA Engage program at OSU. Jessie Heine was our graduate intern extraordinaire. Emily Kirchhofer designed the cover (deftly incorporating an abundance of ideas and opinions). Michelle Miller and Marin Rosenquist completed much of the late-stage editing and also promoted the project at the 2018 OSU Undergraduate Humanities Research Conference. The editors drew on editing work completed by their peers in ENG 435/535 (Fall 2017). And special thanks to Dr. Lara Bovilsky, who in January 2016 generously donated her time to lead ENG 435 students through the University of Oregon’s exhibit devoted to the First Folio (now an online exhibit Time’s Pencil); the student projects that resulted from that class inspired this textbook.
  • Edward De Vere and the Two Shrew Plays

    Edward De Vere and the Two Shrew Plays

    The Playwright’s Progress: Edward de Vere and the Two Shrew Plays Ramon Jiménez or more than 400 years the two Shrew plays—The Tayminge of a Shrowe (1594) and The Taming of the Shrew (1623)—have been entangled with each other in scholarly disagreements about who wrote them, which was F written first, and how they relate to each other. Even today, there is consensus on only one of these questions—that it was Shakespeare alone who wrote The Shrew that appeared in the Folio . It is, as J. Dover Wilson wrote, “one of the most diffi- cult cruxes in the Shakespearian canon” (vii). An objective review of the evidence, however, supplies a solution to the puz- zle. It confirms that the two plays were written in the order in which they appear in the record, The Shrew being a major revision of the earlier play, A Shrew . They were by the same author—Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, whose poetry and plays appeared under the pseudonym “William Shakespeare” during the last decade of his life. Events in Oxford’s sixteenth year and his travels in the 1570s support composition dates before 1580 for both plays. These conclusions also reveal a unique and hitherto unremarked example of the playwright’s progress and development from a teenager learning to write for the stage to a journeyman dramatist in his twenties. De Vere’s exposure to the in- tricacies and language of the law, and his extended tour of France and Italy, as well as his maturation as a poet, caused him to rewrite his earlier effort and pro- duce a comedy that continues to entertain centuries later.
  • The Nature of Stage Directions in the First Folio

    The Nature of Stage Directions in the First Folio

    THE NATURE OF STAGE DIRECTIONS IN THE FIRST FOLIO OF SHAKESPEARE -..L.c..:'~ / .~ A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of English and the Graduate Council of the Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts by Joan E. VanSickle ::::::" November 8, 1972 , ,< ,~. T), c.~ I .. '.i (I "! { I , Iii, / \'-i co~_~ vedJr t.he/C)' partment ----..r-' /'\­ . 0.­ (~,.,'/ ' / ;';--'; A­ I:' L-~_ L ~ J __ Graduate Council 331.815 / PREFACE As is readily apparent to any reader of Shakespeare's folio or quarto plays, stage directions are minimal and, at times, almost entirely absent. Quite wisely, therefore, modern editors of Shakespeare have added stage directions to assist readers to an understanding of the stage action. It is not the purpose of this author to comment further upon these editorial additions~ many scholars have already widely discussed and deliberated the accuracies, and inaccuracies, of these later emendations to Shakespeare's own directions. It is, rather, the intent of this author to pursue a study of the stage directions written in Shakespeare's First Folio (1623). Because there are so few stage directions printed, the matter of interpretation and definition of stage action in these plays has become a matter of scholastic concern. Naturally, the study of staging involves more than simply a direct textual study of the stage directions. One must also consider Shakespeare's life and its influence on his plays, the nature of his acting companies and actors, the physical iv and psychological composition of Elizabethan audiences, and 'the structure of the theatres--especially the Globe Theatre, where most of the plays were enacted.
  • "A Sharers' Repertory." Rethinking Theatrical

    "A Sharers' Repertory." Rethinking Theatrical

    Syme, Holger Schott. "A Sharers’ Repertory." Rethinking Theatrical Documents in Shakespeare’s England. Ed. Tiffany Stern. London: The Arden Shakespeare, 2020. 33–51. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 26 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350051379.ch-002>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 26 September 2021, 08:28 UTC. Copyright © Tiffany Stern and contributors 2020. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 2 A Sharers’ Repertory Holger Schott Syme Without Philip Henslowe, we would know next to nothing about the kinds of repertories early modern London’s resident theatre companies offered to their audiences. As things stand, thanks to the existence of the manuscript commonly known as Henslowe’s Diary , scholars have been able to contemplate the long lists of receipts and expenses that record the titles of well over 200 plays, most of them now lost. The Diary gives us some sense of the richness and diversity of this repertory, of the rapid turnover of plays, and of the kinds of investments theatre companies made to mount new shows. It also names a plethora of actors and other professionals associated with the troupes at the Rose. But, because the records are a fi nancier’s and theatre owner’s, not those of a sharer in an acting company, they do not document how a group of actors decided which plays to stage, how they chose to alternate successful shows, or what they, as actors, were looking for in new commissions.
  • Shakespeare's Impossible Doublet

    Shakespeare's Impossible Doublet

    Rollett - The Impossible Doublet 31 Shakespeare’s Impossible Doublet: Droeshout’s Engraving Anatomized John M. Rollett Abstract The engraving of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout on the title page of the 1623 First Folio has often been criticized for various oddities. In 1911 a professional tailor asserted that the right-hand side of the poet’s doublet was “obviously” the left-hand side of the back of the garment. In this paper I describe evidence which confirms this assessment, demonstrating that Shakespeare is pictured wearing an impossible garment. By printing a caricature of the man from Stratford-upon-Avon, it would seem that the publishers were indicating that he was not the author of the works that bear his name. he Exhibition Searching for Shakespeare,1 held at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 2006, included several pictures supposed at one time or another Tto be portraits of our great poet and playwright. Only one may have any claim to authenticity — that engraved by Martin Droeshout for the title page of the First Folio (Figure 1), the collection of plays published in 1623. Because the dedication and the address “To the great Variety of Readers” are each signed by John Hemmings and Henry Condell, two of Shakespeare’s theatrical colleagues, and because Ben Jonson’s prefatory poem tells us “It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,” the engraving appears to have the imprimatur of Shakespeare’s friends and fellows. The picture is not very attractive, and various defects have been pointed out from time to time – the head is too large, the stiff white collar or wired band seems odd, left and right of the doublet don’t quite match up.
  • 'The New (Old) Play': Q1 Hamlet and the Texts Around

    'The New (Old) Play': Q1 Hamlet and the Texts Around

    ‘THE NEW (OLD) PLAY’: Q1 HAMLET AND THE TEXTS AROUND PERFORMANCE, 1980-2015 Scott Shepherd Royal Holloway, University of London PhD Thesis TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY ................................................................4 ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................7 A NOTE ON TEXTS AND ABBREVIATIONS ....................................................................9 CHAPTER ONE WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT HAMLET ................................11 Approaching the Archive .............................................................................................16 The First Quarto from 1825 to 1980: A Pre-History ....................................................23 The Origins of Q1: A Survey of Scholarship .................................................................35 Summary of the Argument and Outline of the Thesis ....................................................44 CHAPTER TWO: 1980-1989 THE MOST VALUABLE OF ALL SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES ....................................50 RSC 1980: Reviewing Authenticity ...............................................................................58 Orange Tree 1985: Absolute Fidelity? .........................................................................66 RSC 1989: Common Sense, I Suppose ..........................................................................72
  • Sidney, Shakespeare, and the Elizabethans in Caroline England

    Sidney, Shakespeare, and the Elizabethans in Caroline England

    Textual Ghosts: Sidney, Shakespeare, and the Elizabethans in Caroline England Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Rachel Ellen Clark, M.A. English Graduate Program The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Richard Dutton, Advisor Christopher Highley Alan Farmer Copyright by Rachel Ellen Clark 2011 Abstract This dissertation argues that during the reign of Charles I (1625-42), a powerful and long-lasting nationalist discourse emerged that embodied a conflicted nostalgia and located a primary source of English national identity in the Elizabethan era, rooted in the works of William Shakespeare, Sir Philip Sidney, John Lyly, and Ben Jonson. This Elizabethanism attempted to reconcile increasingly hostile conflicts between Catholics and Protestants, court and country, and elite and commoners. Remarkably, as I show by examining several Caroline texts in which Elizabethan ghosts appear, Caroline authors often resurrect long-dead Elizabethan figures to articulate not only Puritan views but also Arminian and Catholic ones. This tendency to complicate associations between the Elizabethan era and militant Protestantism also appears in Caroline plays by Thomas Heywood, Philip Massinger, and William Sampson that figure Queen Elizabeth as both ideally Protestant and dangerously ambiguous. Furthermore, Caroline Elizabethanism included reprintings and adaptations of Elizabethan literature that reshape the ideological significance of the Elizabethan era. The 1630s quarto editions of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan comedies The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, and Love’s Labour’s Lost represent the Elizabethan era as the source of a native English wit that bridges social divides and negotiates the ii roles of powerful women (a renewed concern as Queen Henrietta Maria became more conspicuous at court).
  • An Introduction to William Shakespeare's First Folio

    An Introduction to William Shakespeare's First Folio

    An Introduction to William Shakespeare’s First Folio By Ruth Hazel Cover illustration courtesy of Stephen Collins This eBook was produced by OpenLearn - The home of free learning from The Open University. It is made available to you under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence. 2 Brush up your Shakespeare The comic gangsters in Kiss Me Kate, Cole Porter’s 1948 musical based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, offer Shakespeare’s poetry – by which they actually mean his plays – as a guaranteed way to a woman’s heart: quoting Shakespeare will impress her and be a sure-fire aphrodisiac. Today, Shakespeare has become a supreme icon of Western European high culture, which is ironic since in his own day Shakespeare’s craft – jobbing playwright – was not a well-regarded one. Indeed, those who wrote plays to entertain the ‘groundlings’ (as the people who paid just one penny to stand in the open yard round the stage in public playhouses were called) were often considered little better than the actors themselves – who, in their turn, were only one level up, in the minds of Puritan moralists, from whores. Shakespeare himself did not seem eager to advertise authorship of his plays by seeing them into print, and when some of his plays were printed, in the handy quarto-sized editions for individual consumption, his name was not always on the title page. (The terms ‘folio’ and ‘quarto’ refer to the size of the pages in a book: in a Folio, each sheet of paper was folded just once, with a page height of approx.
  • Romeo and Juliet First Folio

    Romeo and Juliet First Folio

    FIRST FOLIO: TEACHER CURRICULUM GUIDE by William Shakespeare directed by David Muse September 9–October 12 FIRST FOLIO Teacher Curriculum Guide Table of Contents Page Number Welcome to the About the Play Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Synopsis of Romeo and Juliet….... ……..…..2 production of The Elizabethan Stage: The Tradition of Romeo and Juliet All-Male Casts.………………………....3 by William Shakespeare! An Interview with Director David Muse.…....4 Family Feud: Montagues vs. Capulets and This season, the Shakespeare Theatre Who’s Who……………………...…..….5 Company presents seven plays by William Shakespeare’s Italy.………….………..……..6 Shakespeare and other classic playwrights. Consistent with the Shakespeare Theatre Classroom Connections Company's central mission to be the leading Before and After the Performance………….7 force in producing and preserving the highest quality classic theatre , the Education Resources and Standards of Learning Department challenges learners of all ages Resource List and Standards of Learning…8 to explore the ideas, emotions and principles Theatre Etiquette……………………………..9 contained in classic texts and to discover the connection between classic theatre and our modern perceptions. We hope that this First The First Folio Teacher Curriculum Guide for Folio Teacher Curriculum Guide will prove Romeo and Juliet was developed by the useful as you prepare to bring your students Shakespeare Theatre Company Education to the theatre! Department and compiled and edited by Caroline Alexander. “Shakespeare’s Italy” For the 2008-09 season, the Education was written by Wendy Leibowitz. Cover Department will publish First Folio Teacher photo of James Davis by Scott Suchman. Curriculum Guides for our productions of Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Ion.