Less than half of Shakespeare’s plays were published during his lifetime, most often in indifferent, slipshod editions. Photograph: David M Benett/Alan Chapman/Dave Benett/Getty Images ‘It was as if I had never spoken a word of Shakespeare’s before’ … Simon Callow. The editors’ declared intention was to publish the plays “according to the True Originall Copies”, replacing “stol’n and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by frauds and stealths of injurious impostors”.

This book, the purpose of which was to collate all of Shakespeare’s plays into one readily accessible volume, was single-handedly responsible for the survival of 18 plays which would otherwise certainly have disappeared from view, among them such trifles as The Tempest, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, All’s Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Coriolanus and Macbeth. The Folger Library in Washington DC, determinedly collecting copies between 18, has no less than 82, a third of all known copies worldwide in the British Isles there are 50. The initial print run was for 750 copies only just under a third of them are known, though every two or three years another will emerge, in various states of disrepair, to the enormous enrichment of its owner. Known as the First Folio, it is the apple of auctioneers’ eyes. The book first appeared in print under the title of Mr William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies in 1623, seven years after the author’s death.

T his Sunday, 23 April, St George’s Day, traditionally Shakespeare’s birthday, 12 copies of the exceedingly rare first edition of his plays will go on public view around the country.

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