A History of the Text
The text fits within four 4 impressions, the only collected editions of Shakespeare's drama in the 17th c.:
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First Folio (1623)
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Second Folio (1632)
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Third Folio (1663/4)
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Fourth Folio (1685)
The plays were gathered for publication by John Heminges and Henry Condell, Shakespeare’s fellow players at the Globe theatre. The ‘Epistle Dedicatory’ and page addressed ‘To the great variety of Readers’, are both signed by Heminges and Condell.
Source texts
Heminges and Condell’s drew together the texts of thirty-six plays. Their source texts included the printed quartos, theatrical promptbooks and copies of plays prepared by Ralph Crane, considered by many to be ‘Shakespeare’s First Editor’ (Murphy 49). A promptbook is a copy of a script prepared for the use of the stage manager, prompter, or other backstage personnel responsible for supervising performances of a particular production ("promptbook."). Differences in the text between First and Second editions have been dutifully noted and are not without some controversy. Typographical errors “of every conceivable kind” seem to have proliferated, yet others have observed that “about six hundred editorial changes originating in the Second Folio continued to claim a place in early 20th c. editions” (M.W. Black and Matthias Shaaber; Pauline Werstine; qtd. in Murphy 53). Despite its errors, the Second Folio stands its ground as a key point in the development of Shakespeare’s printed text.
Publishing Rights
The publishing rights of the First Folio belonged to Isaac and William Jaggard. By the time of the Second impression however, both had passed away, and so Thomas and Richard Cotes inherited the publishing rights from the widow of Isaac Jaggard. Thomas Cotes began as an apprentice at the Jaggard Printing House and eventually took over with the help of his brother (Murphy 51). Thomas Cotes printed the Second Folio for the members of the syndicate, as named in the final page of the Folio (419).
Smethwick and Aspley were part of the First Folio publication, while Aspley, Meighen, and Allot were new to the Second Folio syndicate. Unlike the First Folio, the Second Folio was issued with five variant title pages, each one addressed to one of the five publishers (Murphy 52). Ours is addressed to Robert Allot (the significance of this is addressed in the ‘Rarity and Value’ section).
