The Bard and the Book: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion

This history follows the survival of William Shakespeare’s plays after his death. It explains why stage plays were not routinely preserved in exact written form, then traces the difficult work of assembling and printing the First Folio seven years later. The account also considers Elizabethan theater, earlier quarto editions of some plays, and the mechanics of printing. Differences among copies of the First Folio reveal how demanding its production was.