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1.2 The significance of the First Folio: Shakespeare as literary figure

Preliminary page 17
Use this resource to explore the University of Leeds Brotherton Collection digital First Folio, to find out more about the significance of the book, and the history of this particular copy.
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Macbeth. I. i. 1 - I. ii. 62
The significance of the plays in Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Preliminary page 3
The significance of Shakespeare as a literary figure. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Preliminary page 15
The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - the principal actors. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Portrait of Shakespeare (first folio)
The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - Shakespeare's portrait. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Preliminary page 7
The context of the first folio of Shakespeare's plays - the readers. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Preliminary page 2
The condition of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Outside front cover
The condition of the binding of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Brotherton First Folio Box
The condition of the containing box of the Library's copy of Shakespeare's first folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Photograph of Lord Brotherton, 1926
Read about Lord Brotherton of Wakefield, who purchased Shakespeare's First Folio and donated it to the University of Leeds. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Theodore Newton Vail, 1845-1920, bust portrait, facing left]
Read about Theodore Vail, a previous owner of Shakespeare's First Folio now owned by the University of Leeds. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Read about the digitisation of Shakespeare's first folio undertaken by the University of Leeds Library. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Preliminary page 17
View a high-resolution digitised version of Shakespeare's First Folio. Part of an online resource for exploring the first folio edition of Shakespeare's plays, held in the Brotherton Collection in Special Collections at the University of Leeds Library.
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Another remarkable thing about the folio is what it says about Shakespeare's status as a literary figure seven years after his death.

The folio is a prestige product, in a large format designed for the library and the collectors' market.

It opens with a series of prefaces and poems which praise Shakespeare as an ornament to the English language and a writer whose works are already recognized as having cult status and likely to outlive their day.

As Ben Jonson writes in his poem at the head of the folio, "He was not of an age, but for all time."

When in the 1630s the poet John Suckling wanted to have a portrait of himself in the role of a literary man, he had himself painted reading Shakespeare's folio.

At this time, plays in English were not generally accepted as serious works of art.

The founder of Oxford University library, Sir Thomas Bodley, specifically laid down that playbooks should not be included in the collection. But the First Folio is the earliest English book in this luxury format to be made up entirely of plays.

It demonstrates not only that Shakespeare was already acclaimed as a writer but that the English theatre as a whole was starting to look like it was producing literature.

Professor Martin Butler

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