The Quartos
Eighteen of William Shakespeare's plays found their way into print during the playwright's lifetime, but there is nothing to suggest that he took any interest in their publication. These eighteen appeared separately in editions called quartos. Their pages were not much larger than a modern-day paperback, and these little books were sold unbound for a few pence. The earliest of the quartos that still survive were printed in 1594, the year that both Titus Andronicus and a version of the play now called King Henry VI, Part 2, became available.
While almost every one of these early quartos displays on its title page the name of the acting company that performed the play, only about half provide the name of the playwright, Shakespeare. The first quarto edition to bear the name Shakespeare on its title page is Love's Labor's Lost of 1598. A few of these quartos were popular with the book-buying public of Shakespeare's lifetime; for example, the quarto of Richard II went through five editions between 1597 and 1615. But most of the quartos were far from best-sellers; Love's Labor’s Lost (1598), for instance, was not reprinted in quarto until 1631. After Shakespeare's death, two more of his plays appeared in quarto format: Othello in 1622 and The Two Noble Kinsmen, coauthored with John Fletcher, in 1634.
The First Folio
In 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies was published. This printing offered readers in a single book 36 of the 38 plays now thought to have been written by Shakespeare, including eighteen that had never been printed before. And it offered them in a style that was then reserved for serious literature and scholarship. The plays were arranged in double columns on pages nearly a foot high. This large page size is called "folio," as opposed to the smaller "quarto," and the 1623 volume is usually called the Shakespeare First Folio. It is reputed to have sold for the lordly price of a pound. (One copy at the Folger Library is marked fifteen shillings—that is, three-quarters of a pound.)
Continue ... Comparing the Texts
Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine (editors), New Folger Library Shakespeare editions. © 2005 Folger Shakespeare Library
