A First Folio in North Yorkshire

Greg Doran, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, stepped down from his role following the death from cancer of his husband, Antony Sher. He spent 2023—the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio—seeing how many copies he could find, first in the UK, and then around the world. By journey’s end, he had seen more than 200 First Folios—over 90% of the surviving copies today—and gained a greater understanding of Shakespeare and his times, as well as his impact on the world.

In the excerpt below, Doran describes his visit to to the town of Skipton, a historic market town in North Yorkshire, England, to learn the story of their copy of the First Folio and the famous author who may have been one of its readers.

SKIPTON

JAMES AND I DRIVE FORTY MINUTES OR SO UP THE RIBBLE VALLEY TO OUR NEXT FOLIO. We skirt Pendle Hill, home to the poor women tried, condemned and executed for witchcraft in 1612; and arrive in Skipton, “the Gateway to the Dales,” just across the Yorkshire border. Here I find one of the most intriguing folios I have so far encountered on my Folio Roadshow. At the Craven Museum, in the heart of this little market town, we are met by Lead Curator Jenny Hill and her assistant Charlotte Craig. I ask Jenny how Skipton came to own a 1623 Folio in the first place.

“A wealthy local businessman called John Wilkinson purchased the book in the early 1900s,” Jenny tells me. The Wilkinsons were mill owners and John’s father spun cotton at Primrose Mill in nearby Embsay from 1854. Over the years, with the advent of the Lancashire cotton famine, brought about by the American Civil War, he began to manufacture tobacco as well and in 1890 this took over the whole mill. John Wilkinson died in 1919 and left all his possessions to his sister Ann. Included in these was his Shakespeare First Folio.

“Then when Ann died in 1936,” Jenny concludes, “she chose to leave it to the town, which is how it arrived here at the museum. But for some unknown reason the librarian at the time decided that it wasn’t a First Folio after all, it was a Second Folio and it was down graded. And from then on that classification was always assumed to be correct.”

“So, this isn’t a First Folio?” I bumble, confused. Jenny continues: “It wasn’t until 2003, when a new census of Folios was being drawn up by Anthony James West, that he came up here to the museum, took one look at our folio and said it was a First Folio after all. Well, you can imagine the excitement!” It was a big moment for Skipton. A local campaign managed to raise the money to build a secure room and a theft-proof display case, and they even got Patrick Stewart, a great Yorkshireman, to record the voice-over describing the treasure.

Skipton First Folio

I ask Jenny to tell me how the cotton mill owner got hold of a folio in the first place. Jenny grins at her colleague Charlotte. One theory is that it came from nearby Ponden Hall. Ponden had one of the largest private libraries not just in the West Riding, but in the whole of Europe. Charlotte has a theory about some of Ponden Hall’s close neighbours who might have used their library.

“Well, Ponden Hall is just two or three miles across the moors from Haworth.”

“Oh, no!” I gasp “From Haworth Parsonage, where the Brontë sisters lived?”

“That’s right,’ says Charlotte. “I used to work there.”

“Are you saying that the Brontë sisters might have read this copy of the First Folio?”

“We know they used to borrow books from Ponden Hall. But I can’t prove they read this folio.”

“Just say it!” I explode. “Let somebody else disprove it. Oh, that is fantastic. What about that!”

James smiles wryly. He thinks I’m mad. Jenny and Charlotte very kindly took the folio out of its case and carried it upstairs for me to examine more closely. While they were doing so, I did a bit of research. I remembered a reference to a letter Charlotte Brontë had written to a school friend about Shakespeare. By the time Jenny and Charlotte had laid out the folio upstairs, I had found the letter online.

Jenny points out that the folio is missing quite a few pages, and doesn’t have any of the Comedies. So I tell them about Charlotte’s letter dated 4 July 1834, to Ellen Nussey. “Ellen was her best friend at school,” Charlotte interjects.

“If you like poetry let it be first rate, Milton, Shakespeare, Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if you will though I don’t admire him), Scott, Byron, Campbell, Wordsworth and Southey. Now Ellen don’t be startled at the names of Shakespeare, and Byron. Both these were great men and their works are like themselves. You will know how to choose the good and avoid the evil, the finest passages are always the purest, the bad are invariably revolting you will never wish to read them over twice. Omit the comedies of Shakespeare.”

Omit the comedies of Shakespeare. And the Skipton copy has no comedies.

“Perhaps Charlotte ripped them out,” Jenny laughs.

“This just gets better and better,” I say. “Charlotte, you’ve got to get this story out there.”

Once we have all calmed down a little, I tell Jenny that despite its now even more fascinating history, I think it might be the grubbiest copy of the First Folio I have ever seen. “Could you not say ‘grubbiest,’” Jenny grins. “Could you perhaps say ‘well-loved’?”

The well-thumbed Skipton copy has become one of my very favourite copies of the First Folio, whether or not anyone can prove that the Brontë sisters ever read it.

The Craven Museum is open Wednesday–Monday, 9:30am–4:30pm, and is free entry. The Folio is on permanent display for visitors to see whenever the museum is open.

About the author

Greg Doran has been described as “one of the supreme Shakespeare directors of our era” (Financial Times). He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as an actor in 1987 and was its artistic director from 2012 to 2022. He has directed and/or produced every single play in the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays at Stratford-upon-Avon. He was awarded the Sam Wanamaker Prize for pioneering work in Shakespearean theatre in 2012. He was knighted for services to the arts in 2024.