Folio 400 - Printing Shakespeare

Folio 400 - Printing Shakespeare

A celebration of the 400th anniversary of the printing of Shakespeare's First Folio in 1623

The First Folio is one of the great wonders of the literary world.

Published on 8th November 1623, more than seven years after the death of its author, it was the first printed edition of Shakespeare’s collected plays.  This website is dedicated to this achievement, without which we would have lost half of his dramatic work.

Printing Shakespeare's First Folio

Publication

Explore the process behind the creation of Shakespeare’s First Folio.

Henry Condell and John Heminge

Cast

Find out about the principal characters involved in the First Folio’s publication.

Macbeth

Contents

The approximate date each play was written, its route to print, a brief synopsis of the plot and spoken words from the First Folio.

Listen and follow

Listen to speeches from all the plays while you read with ease the words as they appear in the First Folio.

Where are they?

How many copies of the First Folio survive and where were they 400 years on?

Where are they?

How many copies of the First Folio survive
and where were they 400 years on?

Celebrations Past

Find out how the First Folio’s
400th Birthday was celebrated

Lasting Legacy

The year of Folio400 is over, but a number of projects inspired by the anniversary live on.

Folio-phernalia

Articles written for Folio400 by Shakespeare scholars, experts, writers and performers together with a video of the First Folio in the Globe Theatre.