SHAKESPEARE FIRST FOLIO

IT’S NOT LIKE they’ve just found the original typewriter ribbon from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. On the other hand, there were perhaps no more than 750 copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio, only around 230 of them are known to exist—and one recently surfaced in a stately home on Scotland’s Isle of Bute.

The Isle of Bute First Folio. This and the following images from “Shakespeare First Folio Discovered on Scottish Island,” BBC News, April 7, 2016.

The First Folio, “Published according to the True Original Copies,” came out in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare’s death. Its publishers claimed the collection of 36 plays replaced earlier “stol’n and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by frauds and stealths of injurious imposters.” Not atypical of the times, one of the publishers already had published a bogus Shakespeare collection and printed others with less than clear rights to do so.

Of the 36 plays included, it’s believed 18 would have been otherwise lost. As noted online in BBC News, April 7, 2016, “Without this publication, there would be no copy of plays such as Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and The Tempest.”

William Shakespeare, 1564 – 1616, English playwright and poet. Portrait by Martin Droeshout as it appears on the title page of the First Folio.

What’s more, the familiar portrait of Shakespeare, done by Martin Droeshout, appears on the title page of the First Folio. It’s one of only two works identified as depicting Shakespeare, and even in this there’s Elizabethan intrigue: It’s uncertain which of two Martin Droehouts did the engraving. Nor are its inspirational sources completely clear.

This other First Folio resides in Oxford University’s Bodleian Library.

Rare and cherished, First Folios are extremely valuable. One owned by Oxford University sold for £3.5 million (nearly $5 million) in 2003. When Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford, heard of the Isle of Bute’s First Folio, BBC News reported her first reaction was, “Like hell they have.” Upon examination of the three volumes, she acknowledged, “We’ve found a First Folio that we didn’t know existed.”

Little is known of the example’s provenance. It had been owned by a literary editor in the 18th century, then went missing until it showed up in the Mount Stuart House collection in 1896.

The Library, Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute, Scotland.

The three volumes are believed to have been acquired by the third Marquess of Bute, an antiquarian and collector, who also commissioned Mount Stuart House. This Gothic Revival home, built 1879 – 1900, is known for being the first in Scotland to have electric lights, central heating, telephone and the world’s first indoor heated swimming pool.

Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute, Scotland.

Staff members of the Mount Stuart House Trust were researching the home’s collection of books and asked Oxford experts to assess what had been claimed to be a First Folio. Authenticating an original is complex, especially so given the age of the document and a passel of Victorian fakes. Indeed, some 19th-century reproductions were authorized to repair missing or damaged Folio pages.

Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Oxford. She gives interesting commentary about First Folios at a video.

Professor Smith suggests that perhaps not all the officially cataloged First Folios are legit and yet other genuine ones may still be found.

The Isle of Bute First Folio will be on public display at Mount Stuart House—perfect timing, what with the 400th anniversary of the playwright’s death coming on April 23, 2016. ds

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2016