{"id":1628,"date":"2021-02-10T15:46:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-10T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folio400.com\/?post_type=phernalia&p=1628"},"modified":"2021-05-25T15:55:06","modified_gmt":"2021-05-25T14:55:06","slug":"the-miraculous-first-folio","status":"publish","type":"phernalia","link":"https:\/\/folio400.com\/phernalia\/the-miraculous-first-folio\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miraculous First Folio"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
Two friends of mine, a married couple, used to host an annual party to celebrate Shakespeare\u2019s birthday. They were, needless to say, life-long fans of the playwright and, as it happens, immensely generous hosts. So they were happy to provide limitless amounts of alcohol, a delicious dinner, recitals, poetry and the performance of songs around the grand piano and, at the climax of the evening, a ferociously difficult quiz about their hero that was taken very seriously and became, as the wine kicked in, very competitive.<\/p>
But the festivities always began as we gathered around a bust of Shakespeare in the garden, where a toast was proposed, not to the birthday boy, but to his two colleagues \u2013 John Heminge and Henry Condell.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t