The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's First Folio

Description

Shakespeare's First Folio, published in 1623, is one of the world's most studied books, prompting speculation about everything from proof-reading practices in the early modern publishing industry to the 'true' authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Arguments about the nature of the First Folio are crucial to every modern edition of Shakespeare and thus to every reader or student of the plays. This Companion surveys the critical methods brought to bear on the Folio and equips readers with the tools to understand it and to develop their skills in early modern book culture more generally. A team of international scholars surveys the range of bibliographic, historical and textual material relating to the Folio, its editors, collectors and critical reception. This revealing volume will be of wide interest to scholars of Shakespeare, the history of the book and early modern drama.

Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford. She has lectured widely in the UK and beyond on the First Folio and on Shakespeare and early modern drama. Her research interests include the methodology of writing about theatre, and developing analogies between cinema, film theory and early modern performance. Her recent publications include Macbeth: Language and Writing (2013), The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide (Cambridge, 2012) and Shakespeare's First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016).

'... takes the reader on a journey through the history of perhaps the book world's most famous literary edition. ... Readers of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's First Folio are lucky. Not only because they have in their hands an excellent resource that will elucidate many aspects of the edition, but also because modern digital renderings of the First Folio are now more accessible than ever.' William J. Humphries, The Seventeenth Century