\u00a0<\/span><\/p>There are censuses that have been done: one of the amazing things is that this copy has not been part of those censuses, so to bring a copy from the shadows into the light is very special.<\/p>
Having been untouched for over two hundred years, it\u2019s still in beautiful condition. This is it\u2019s binding from the late eighteenth century.<\/p>
The First Folio as a text is incredibly important: it contains thirty-six plays, eighteen of which we would not have if it were not for the printing of the First Folio. Essentially half of Shakespeare\u2019s output, plays such as Macbeth<\/i>, The Tempest<\/i>\u2026 \u2013 can you imagine a world where we don\u2019t have a line like \u2018Double double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble\u2019 \u2013 that again is preserved for posterity through the printing of the First Folio.<\/p>
[This copy] was owned by a man by the name of Sir George Shuckborough: he inscribes the book, and left some of his notes here, so we know that he bought it from [Roger] Payne, who was a binder but also dealt in bookselling and with booksellers, because he tells us so. And so here it is: \u2018Mr Payne\u2019s Shakespeare, said to be the first edition of 1623\u2019 \u2013 and of course that\u2019s exactly what it is.<\/p>
Previous plays, and most plays up to that point, had been printed in smaller formats. So here are Shakespeare\u2019s collected plays in this larger format, a much more substantive volume, so again it\u2019s really elevating Shakespeare within seven years of his death, into this national poet.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t