![]() ![]() If Shakespeare had not been revived in the later 17th century, it is hard to see how he would have become the national poet during the 18th. These articles mark the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, the first collected edition of William Shakespeare’s plays. This article is part of our First Folio 400 series. Had he not come back into prominence at that important moment – and had the newly revived theatre looked elsewhere for their dramatic scripts – Shakespeare’s reputation might well have been permanently lost. This large collection of Shakespeare’s works took up visible space on the shelf. The convenience and ready availability of the First Folio as a repository for Shakespeare’s plays was a significant practical factor in getting him back into the theatres when they reopened at the Restoration of Charles II in 1660. This different canon would have prompted a different historical response. Without it, the canon of Shakespeare’s plays would have decisively shifted. In part this is due to the fact that they are not included in the First Folio. ![]() Conversely, title pages identify Shakespeare as the author of The London Prodigal (1605) and A Yorkshire Tragedy (1608), which most modern scholars do not attribute to Shakespeare. Since some of these early editions did not name Shakespeare on their title pages, the authorship of plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Titus Andronicus and Henry V would be uncertain. The title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays. ![]()
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