arly one thousand double-column pages and was sold at a
pound a copy. Steevens estimated that the edition numbered 250 copies.
The book was described on the title-page as published by Edward Blount
and Isaac Jaggard, and in the colophon as printed at the charges of 'W.
Jaggard, I. Smithweeke, and W. Aspley,' as well as of Blount. {306} On
the title-page was engraved the Droeshout portrait. Commendatory verses
were supplied by Ben Jonson, Hugh Holland, Leonard Digges, and I. M.,
perhaps Jasper Maine. The dedication was addressed to the brothers
William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, the lord chamberlain, and Philip
Herbert, earl of Montgomery, and was signed by Shakespeare's friends and
fellow-actors, Heming and Condell. The same signatures were appended to
a succeeding address 'to the great variety of readers.' In both
addresses the two actors made pretension to a larger responsibility for
the enterprise than they really incurred, but their motives in
identifying themselves with the venture were doubtless irreproachable.
They disclaimed (they wrote) 'ambition either of selfe-profit or fame in
undertaking the design,' being solely moved by anxiety to 'keepe the
memory of so worthy a friend and fellow alive as was our Shakespeare.'
'It had bene a thing we confesse worthie to haue bene wished,' they
inform the reader, 'that the author himselfe had liued to haue set forth
and ouerseen his owne writings. . . .' A list of contents follows the
address to the readers.

The value of the text.

The title-page states that all the plays were printed 'according to the
true originall copies.' The dedicators wrote to the same effect. 'As
where (before) we were abus'd with diuerse stolne and surreptitious
copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of incurious
impostors that expos'd them: even those are now offer'd to your view
cur'd and perfect in their limbes, and all the rest absolute in their
numbers as he conceived them.' There is no doubt that the whole volume
was printed from the acting versions in the possession of the manager of
the company with which Shakespeare had been associated. But it is
doubtful if any play were printed exactly as it came from his pen. The
First Folio text is often markedly inferior to that of the sixteen
pre-existent quartos, which, although surreptitiously and imperfectly
printed, followed playhouse copies of far earlier date. From the text of
the quartos the text of the F