Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio

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He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest plays in the English language. In his later period, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. First published in quarto in 1594; the second quarto was published in 1600, the third in 1611. [20]

It reveals how Shakespeare himself, before his death, may have influenced the ways in which his own public identity would come to be enshrined in the First Folio, shaping his legacy to future generations and determining how the world would remember him: "not of an age, but for all time." Considered the greatest writer in the English language, William Shakespeare's works are among the world's most widely read, most intensely studied, and most passionately collected. Early editions are also some of the most valuable.Published in a "bad quarto" [note 6] in 1600 by Thomas Millington and John Busby; reprinted in "bad" form in 1603 and 1619, it was published fully for the first time in the First Folio. The identical dates may not be coincidental; the Pauline and Ephesian aspect of the play, noted under Sources, may have had the effect of linking The Comedy of Errors to the holiday season—much like Twelfth Night, another play secular on its surface but linked to the Christmas holidays. Shakespeare’s Book tells the true story of how the makers of the First Folio created “Shakespeare” as we know him today.

Egeon, about to be executed for unlawfully entering Ephesus, tells the sad tale of his search for his twin sons and wife. The Duke agrees to spare him if his family is found. Meanwhile, his twin sons, both of whom are named Antipholus, and their servants, both of whom are named Dromio, are actually in Ephesus, each unaware that he even has a twin. After a series of hilarious events involving mistaken identity almost ending in catastrophe, the twins are reunited with their mother and father, and realise their relation to each other. An aged king divides his kingdom between two of his daughters, Regan and Goneril, and casts the youngest, Cordelia, out of his Kingdom for disloyalty. Eventually he comes to understand that it is Regan and Goneril who are disloyal, but he has already given them the kingdom. He wanders the countryside as a poor man until Cordelia comes with her husband, the King of France, to reclaim her father's lands. Regan and Goneril are defeated, but only after Cordelia has been captured and murdered. King Lear then dies of grief.First known performance at Covent Garden Theatre on 26 February 1737 but doubtlessly performed as early as the 1590s.