False Folio is the term that Shakespeare scholars and
bibliographersBibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
have applied to
William JaggardWilliam Jaggard was an Elizabethan and Jacobean printer and publisher, best known for his connection with the texts of William Shakespeare, most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays...
's printing of ten Shakespearean and
pseudo-ShakespeareanThe Shakespeare Apocrypha is the name given to a group of plays that have sometimes been attributed to William Shakespeare, but whose attribution is questionable for various reasons...
plays together in
1619The year 1619 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Richard Burbage dies in March; his place as the star of the King's Men is filled by Joseph Taylor.*René Descartes has a dream that helps him develop his ideas on analytical geometry....
, the first attempt to collect Shakespeare's work in a single volume.
The term "false folio" intentionally evokes the folio collections of Shakespeare's works that appeared later in the seventeenth century — the
First FolioMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....
of
1623The year 1623 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Procopius's long-lost Secret History is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.*François le Métel de Boisrobert comes under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu....
and its successors.
False Folio is the term that Shakespeare scholars and
bibliographersBibliography , as a practice, is the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology...
have applied to
William JaggardWilliam Jaggard was an Elizabethan and Jacobean printer and publisher, best known for his connection with the texts of William Shakespeare, most notably the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays...
's printing of ten Shakespearean and
pseudo-ShakespeareanThe Shakespeare Apocrypha is the name given to a group of plays that have sometimes been attributed to William Shakespeare, but whose attribution is questionable for various reasons...
plays together in
1619The year 1619 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Richard Burbage dies in March; his place as the star of the King's Men is filled by Joseph Taylor.*René Descartes has a dream that helps him develop his ideas on analytical geometry....
, the first attempt to collect Shakespeare's work in a single volume.
The term "false folio" intentionally evokes the folio collections of Shakespeare's works that appeared later in the seventeenth century — the
First FolioMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies is the 1623 published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Modern scholars commonly refer to it as the First Folio....
of
1623The year 1623 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*Procopius's long-lost Secret History is rediscovered in the Vatican Library.*François le Métel de Boisrobert comes under the patronage of Cardinal Richelieu....
and its successors. The word "folio" is not strictly accurate, since the ten plays were printed in a larger-than-usual
quartoQuarto could refer to:* Quarto, a size or format of a book in which four leaves of a book are created from a standard size sheet of paper* For specific information about quarto texts of William Shakespeare's works, see:...
format, not in folio; but the key qualifier is
false folio. The texts in question were first examined with modern bibliographic procedures primarily by
Alfred W. PollardAlfred William Pollard was an English bibliographer, widely credited for bringing a higher level of scholarly rigor to the study of Shakespearean texts....
,
W. W. GregSir Walter Wilson Greg was one of the leading bibliographers and Shakespeare scholars of the 20th century.Greg was born at Wimbledon Common in 1875. His father, William Rathbone Greg, was an essayist; his mother was the daughter of James Wilson...
, and William J. Neidig. Pollard provides a detailed account in his
Shakespeare Folios and Quartos.
In summary, the stationer and printer William Jaggard reprinted ten plays in 1619, either to be bound together in a single volume or issued separately depending on customer choice. Jaggard, however, did not have clear title to all of the plays involved [see:
Stationers CompanyThe Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...
;
Stationers' RegisterThe Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...
], and therefore he printed some of the texts with false dates and the names of the original stationers involved on the title pages — in effect reproducing the appearance of the earlier quartos. The ten plays were:
- Henry V
Henry V is a history play by William Shakespeare, written in 1599. It is based on the life of King Henry V of England, and focuses on events immediately before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years' War....
— "printed for T. P. 1608" on the title page. False date. Thomas PavierThomas Pavier was a London publisher and bookseller of the early seventeenth century. His complex involvement in the publication of early editions of some of Shakespeare's plays, as well as plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, has left him with a "dubious reputation."-Life and work:Pavier came to...
was the stationer who possessed the rights to Henry V, and was an associate of Jaggard.
- King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606, and is considered one of his greatest works. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological pre-Roman Celtic king...
— "Printed for Nathaniel ButterNathaniel Butter was a London publisher of the early 17th century. The publisher of the first edition of Shakespeare's King Lear in 1608, he has also been regarded as one of the first publishers of a newspaper in English....
1608." False date and name. Butter had printed Q1 of Lear in 1608.
- The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Although classified as a comedy in the First Folio, and while it shares certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps more remembered for its dramatic...
— "Printed by J. Roberts, 1600." False date and name. This was one play to which Jaggard did not have valid title; it belonged to stationer Laurence Hayes.
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...
— "Printed for Arthur Johnson, 1619." False date and name. Johnson published Q1 of Merry Wives in 1602.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare. It was suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and written around 1594 to 1596...
— "Printed by James Roberts, 1600." False date and name.
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Pericles, Prince of Tyre is a play written at least in part by William Shakespeare and included in modern editions of his collected works despite questions over its authorship, as it was not included in the First Folio. Modern editors generally agree that Shakespeare is responsible for the main...
— "Printed for T. P. 1619".
- Sir John Oldcastle
Sir John Oldcastle is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-15th century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr.-Publication:...
— "printed for T. P. 1600". False date.
- A Yorkshire Tragedy
A Yorkshire Tragedy is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favoring Thomas Middleton....
— "Printed for T. P. 1619."
- The Whole Contention Between the Two Famous Houses, Lancaster and York — "Printed at London, for T. P." This was the major innovation of the collection: Jaggard joined together two previously separate texts, The First Part of the Contention Betwixt the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (the early version of Henry VI, Part 2
The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth, or Henry VI, Part 2, is a history play by William Shakespeare believed written in approximately 1590-91...
, published by Thomas MillingtonThomas Millington was a London publisher of the Elizabethan era, who published first editions of three Shakespearean plays...
in 1594 and 1600), and The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York (the early version of Henry VI, Part 3Henry the Sixth, Part 3, is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed written in approximately 1590, and set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of England. It prepares the ground for one of his best-known and most controversial plays: the history of Richard III...
, published by Millington in 1595 and 1600). In 1602, Pavier had acquired the rights to both plays from Millington. Pericles was printed after The Whole Contention, since their signatures (the alphanumeric designations of the quires in sequence) run together; but the nine plays were apparently bound together in no particular order. (The few existing collections vary.)
As Jaggard lacked rights to Hayes'
Merchant of Venice, he may also have lacked rights to Butter's
Lear and Johnson's
Merry Wives. There is much about the False Folio affair that remains unclear, such as subjective questions of Jaggard's motivation. Jaggard had a previous odd connection with the Shakespeare canon: he had printed the questionable miscellany
The Passionate PilgrimThe Passionate Pilgrim is an anthology of poems, published in 1599, which according to the title-page were "By W. Shakespeare".-Editions:The Passionate Pilgrim was published by William Jaggard, later the publisher of Shakespeare's First Folio...
as Shakespeare's in
1599-Events:* Undated - Opening of the Globe Theatre.*June 4 - Middleton's Microcynicon and Marston's Scourge of Villainy are publicly burned, as ecclesiastical authorities crack down on the craze for satire of the past year. The Bishop of London and the Archbishop of Canterbury tighten their...
and
1612The year 1612 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*On January 6, Ben Jonson's masque Love Restored is performed.*The King's Men and Queen Anne's Men unite for two Court performances in January: they act Heywood's The Silver Age on January 12, and his The Rape of Lucrece on...
. Some Shakespeare scholars have wondered why the
King's MenThe King's Men was the company of actors to which William Shakespeare belonged through most of his career. Formerly known as The Lord Chamberlain's Men during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, it became The King's Men in 1603 when King James ascended the throne and became the company's patron.The...
used Jaggard as the printer and one of the publishers of the First Folio, just a couple of years after the False Folio affair. (Work on the First Folio began almost certainly in 1621.) It may have been a case of necessity, since Jaggard had a large-capacity print shop. (He had demonstrated his ability to print a volume of ten plays.) Pavier's role in the matter is also debated; his initials occur on five of the nine volumes (six of the ten plays), and some contemporary commentators see Pavier's role as more significant than Jaggard's — referring to the books as the "Pavier quartos" instead of the "False Folio."
Pollard focused much of his attention on the concept of literary "piracy," and his viewpoint coloured much of the scholarly attitude and approach to the False Folio during the twentieth century. By the start of the twenty-first century, some researchers began take a less melodramatic and more nuanced view of the questions involved, a view that no longer casts Jaggard and Pavier as the villains in a moral contest.