Shakespeare’s First Folio on display in Boise
By Dana DuGan
Have you ever seen a play, read a book or gone to a film? If so, you’ve been influenced by William Shakespeare’s work. Even more so than Dickens and Hemingway, Shakespeare is the most recognizable writer who has ever lived.
Now, “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” is on display at Boise State University, through Friday, Sept. 23.
After he died, in 1616, two of Shakespeare’s fellow thespians – John Heminges and Henry Condell, who had memorized the plays – decided to assemble 36 of his scripts and publish them in a 4-pound, 13-ounce folio. Published in 1623, there were originally 750 folios produced, with 235 of them surviving. One was recently uncovered in a Scottish manor home, authenticated and put on display.
The Folger Shakespeare Library, in Washington, D.C., which has the world’s largest Shakespeare collection, owns 82 of them. This year, the Folger is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death with a variety of events under the banner, “The Wonder of Will – 400 Years of Shakespeare.” As one of its outreach projects, it has sent 18 folios out on tour – six at a time – to each of the 50 states.
The First Folio lives in a specially constructed glass case, is 393 years old, 630 pages long, and is worth more than $5 million – and is, for many, the paper equivalent of The Holy Grail.
Without the First Folio we wouldn’t have 18 of Shakespeare’s plays, including “As You Like It,” “Antony and Cleopatra,” “Julius Caesar,” “Macbeth,” “Twelfth Night,” “The Tempest” and “The Comedy of Errors.” All 18 appeared for the first time in print in the original folio and would otherwise have been lost.
The book is also the only source of the familiar dome-headed portrait of Shakespeare by Martin Droeshout.
It’s almost unimaginable to think of a world without Shakespeare. Not just the above plays produced hundreds of times every year across the globe, but authors who used Shakespeare to teach them about storytelling, pacing and language, and filmmakers who updated the material over and over.
Then there are the performances: Judi Dench as Juliet in “Romeo & Juliet,” Laurence Olivier as “Richard III,” Kenneth Brannagh’s “Henry V,” Emma Thompson as Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing,” Mark Rylance as (yes!) Olivia in “Twelfth Night,” Derek Jacobi as “Richard II,” John Gielgud as “King Lear.” The list goes on, with more and more added to the list of actors interpreting Shakespeare in career-defining performances.
Anyone who thinks Shakespeare is no longer relevant just has to consider the long lines at the Yanke Family Research Park at 220 E. Parkcenter Boulevard In Boise. The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. There are associated special events all month long. Parking for all events is free. For more information or to sign up for the mailing list contact firstfolio@boisestate.edu or call (208) 426-5754.