st.
The two gentlemen of Verona. Measure for Measure. The Comedy of
Errors. As you like it. All's well that ends well. Twelft Night. The
winters tale. Histories. The thirde part of Henry the sixt. Henry
the eight. Tragedies. Coriolanus. Timon of Athens. Julius Caesar.
Mackbeth. Anthonie and Cleopatra. Cymbeline.

One notes here the omission of _1_ and _2 Henry VI_, _King John_, and
_The Taming of the Shrew_, which had neither been previously entered nor
issued in Quarto. This is probably due to the fact that three of these
are based on older plays of which Quartos exist, which may have seemed
to the publishers reason enough to save their sixpences. If we assume
that "The thirde part of Henry the sixt" is a misprint for "The first
part," the explanation covers the whole case. The registration of
_Antony and Cleopatra_ was superfluous, as it had been entered, though
not printed, so far as we know, on May 20, 1608.

There are thus in the First Folio, the publication of which immediately
followed this entry in 1623, twenty plays not before issued, for which
the text of this volume is our sole authority. The emphasis so commonly
placed on the supreme value of the text of the First Folio is justified
with regard to these twenty plays; as for the remaining seventeen, its
importance is shared, in proportions varying from play to play, with the
texts of the Quartos. The sources from which the compilers of the Folio
obtained their new material were in all probability playhouse copies, as
in the case of the better Quartos. Heminge and Condell, Shakespeare's
actor colleagues and friends, who sign the Address to the Readers,[9]
would obviously be the instruments for obtaining such copies. As for the
so-called "private transcripts" which some have postulated as a source
of material, there is no evidence that at this date any such existed.
Whether any of the playhouse manuscripts provided by Heminge and Condell
were in Shakespeare's autograph we can neither affirm nor deny, but it
is well to be cautious in accepting at its face value the implication
contained in their words that they had "scarce received from him a blot
in his papers."

[9] For this and other prefatory matter from the First Folio, see
Appendix A.

[Illustration: THE TITLE PAGE OF THE FIRST FOLIO

(_From the copy in the New York Public Library._)]

[Page Heading: The First Folio]

The First Folio is a large volume of 908 pages, measuring in