The everlasting debate surrounding who really wrote Shakespeare’s plays persists, yet no one ever questions who compiled his plays. Who took the time to chronicle Shakespeare’s work well enough to endure hundreds of years? Enter John Heminge and Henry Condell. These two actors produced the First Folio, the first publication of Shakespeare’s work. If Heminge and Condell hadn’t taken the time to compile Shakespeare’s work, many of his plays may have been completely lost, as none of his manuscripts remain.
Henry Condell was born in 1568 and lived until the age of 59. Condell was an actor in Shakespeare’s company: The King’s Men. Condell only acted until 1616, he retired and set out to compile plays. Condell also co-owned The Globe Theater with William Sly. John Heminge was also an actor in The King’s Men up until adopting the project of the First Folio. Heminge, in addition to acting and publishing, was the financial manager of The King’s Men.
The First Folio, originally called Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies, contained 36 of Shakespeare’s plays. The First Folio was printed seven years after Shakespeare’s death though several other editions have been published since. The comedies in the First Folio include The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and As You Like It. The histories consisted of King John, Richard II, Henry IV, and the subsequent plays on the same nobility. Some tragedies published are King Lear, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. The compilation was dedicated to Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery, and William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, copyrights did not exist to protect the authorship of a text. Because there were no safeguards against having written work stolen, playwrights rarely published their work. Shakespeare did not authorize this publication, as once written work was published, it belonged to the publishers. Similarly, actors in the 16th and 17th century were not to be trusted, though their reputation improved as more theaters were constructed. If any actor from a rival troupe managed to obtain a script, they could perform the play and damage the original troupe’s profits
Because England’s printing industry was very young at the time, much of the paper the First Folio was printed on was imported from France. Finding a printer to take on the job was a difficult task as the First Folio was over 900 pages. Eventually, the father-son team William and Isaac Jaggard agreed to print it. About 500 copies of the First Folio were initially printed; each were sold for one pound. Currently, 238 copies are known to still exist; one-third of these copies are in the Shakespeare Folger Library.
Without the efforts of Henry Condell and John Heminge, Shakespeare’s plays may have been lost. The First Folio is the most reputable record of Shakespeare's plays. The massive publication task, carried out against the will of the playwright, has preserved 36 plays that are still cherished today.
