Shakespeare is acknowledged to be the greatest dramatist in the English Language, and yet none of his manuscripts survive. Less than half his plays were printed before he died, and the first collected edition of 36 of his plays appeared in 1623, seven years after his death, in the First Folio. Two of his fellow actors and closest friends, John Heminge and Henry Condell, undertook the work of editing the text and supervising the printing by Isaac Jaggard and Edward Blount.Today, the British Library holds one of the precious few remaining copies of the First Folio, and in association with the Globe Theatre in London, have produced a series of hardback facsimile editions of individual plays from the book, beginning with, "Othello", "The Merchant of Venice" and "Love's Labour's Lost", and now with three new titles: "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummers Night's Dream". In addition to the text for the play, each title will include copies of the preliminary pages from the Folio including the portrait of Shakespeare, engraved by Martin Droeshout, and an introduction by Anthony James West, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of English Studies, University College London.
- ISBN10 1419246879
- ISBN13 9781419246876
- Publish Date 17 June 2004
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Kessinger Publishing
- Format eBook
- Language English