Category: Shakespeare

This is an exact facsimile reproduction of the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. This eBookTreasures edition is taken from an exceptional copy held at the British Library.Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The first Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.For students of Shakespeare, going back to these earliest printed editions of the plays provides an incredible insight in to the language used at the time of the plays’ performance and is an essential part of a more complete understanding of Shakespeare’s work.

The First Folio comprises all 36 of Shakespeare’s plays and runs to 914 pages. This eBookTreasures edition also includes several speeches from the play performed by actors using 17th century pronunciation, allowing you to hear the play as Shakespeare would.

As well as the complete First Folio, all 36 individual plays are available from the iBookstore.

This facsimile edition of Romeo and Julietis taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

Romeo and Juliet is Shakespeare’s most enduringly popular play, telling the story of two doomed lovers. It has been performed and adapted in countless ways, and is still one of the most-studied plays in the world. It was written sometime between 1591 and 1595.

This is an enhanced eBookTreasures facsimile edition which includes a speech from the play performed with 17th century pronunciation, allowing you to hear the play as Shakespeare would.

This facsimile edition of A Midsummer Night’s Dreamis taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies and is still widely performed today. It is thought that sources such as Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’ and Chaucer’s ‘The Knight’s Tale’ influenced Shakespeare in his composition of the play. It was written some time around 1595.

This is an enhanced eBookTreasures facsimile edition which includes a speech from the play performed with 17th century pronunciation, allowing you to hear the play as Shakespeare would.

This facsimile edition of Julius Caesaris taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

Julius Caesar is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies and tells of the plotting and assassination of emperor Julius Caesar in 44BC. Shakespeare drew from Sir Thomas North’s translation of Plutarch’s ‘Life of Brutus and Life of Caesar’ for the play, but changed much of the historical detail.The play is believed to have been written in 1599.

This is an enhanced eBookTreasures facsimile edition which includes a speech from the play performed with 17th century pronunciation, allowing you to hear the play as Shakespeare would.

This facsimile edition of Macbethis taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, drawn again from Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles, although much altered. The First Folio edition is the first ever printing of the play, which is thought to date from 1603 to 1607.

This facsimile edition of Hamletis taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The First Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s most enduring and famous tragedies, and the version in the First Folio is one of three early and very different versions that exist. It was written around the turn of the 17th century and the part of Hamlet has always attracted the most illustrious actors.

This facsimile edition of Anthony and Cleopatrais taken from the large and handsome book known simply as the ‘First Folio’, the earliest collected edition of Shakespeare’s ‘Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies’. It was printed in 1623, seven years after his death. Eighteen of Shakespeare’s plays had already been published in the small, cheap format known as quartos during his lifetime, including such favourites as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. The first Folio added another eighteen, including Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night all of which are indispensable to the modern repertory. Without the First Folio only half of Shakespeare’s dramatic output would have survived.The collection was brought together by John Heminge and Henry Condell, fellow-actors of the dramatist and also sharers in his company the Lord Chamberlain’s Men (later the King’s Men). They were able to draw on a variety of sources, such as Shakespeare’s own manuscripts, company promptbooks, manuscript fair copies and even the earlier quarto editions. The First Folio title page shows that the intention was to give readers authoritative texts from ‘the True Originall Copies’. In their address ‘To the great Variety of Readers’, Heminge and Condell claim that they are offering not ‘diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies’ but those ‘cur’d and perfect’ as Shakespeare himself had conceived them. They reveal a more commercial aim in their exhortation ‘what ever you do, Buy’. The First Folio must have been an expensive undertaking.

Anthony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare’s most famous tragedies and has been performed on stage and screen many times. It draws extensively from Plutarch’s Lives of Noble Greeks and Romans. Cleopatra must surely rank as one of the most compelling of Shakespeare’s creations. The play was written some time between 1603 and 1607.