The Bard and The Book by Ann Bausum

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564. He came to be known as the Bard of Avon, or the poet from Avon. But his fame was made in London. While he worked in London, first as an actor and later as a playwright, his wife Anne and their children remained in Avon. He was also a business partner in a new theater called the Globe which competed with others like the Rose, the Curtain, and the Swan.

Shakespeare was one of many London playwrights that included Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and John Fletcher. From 1585 to 1613, Shakespeare wrote three dozen plays including comedies, tragedies, and histories. The latter were about the English nobility and kept Shakespeare and his company of actors in favour with the English Crown. They became known as the King's Men.

To write his plays, Shakespeare used paper ink and quill pens. Although none of his original manuscripts called foul papers have survived, he plays did. It was due to theatrical scribes like Ralph Crane who transcribed the foul copies into legible copies of the playwright's original text. Each players lines were written down glued together and rolled up into a bundle for each part. These rolls came to be known as the acting role referred to today.

Many of the famous roles in Shakespeare's plays were first acted by Richard Burbage. Shakespeare wrote his characters with this actor in mind. He first portrayed Hamlet, King Lear, and the hunchbacked King Richard III. Burbage was one of the King's Men and Shakespeare trusted him to bring his characters to life. All the actors in Shakespeare's time were men; female roles were played by teenage boys or young men. 

Shakespeare returned to Avon in 1610 likely to spend time with his family. His exact date of death and the cause, is not known for certain but it is known that he was buried on April 25, 1616. 

In Shakespeare's time, "The lines of a play lived in the memories of the people who performed and watched them." The plays were written to be performed not published. And publishers did not need the playwright's permission to publish as theaters owned the scripts. However, eighteen of Shakespeare's plays were published during his lifetime as thin books called quartos. The quarto was a sheet of folded twice to make eight pages. Some of these were accurately transcribed editions, others were not and came to be known as the bad quartos.

With Shakespeare's death in 1616 and Richard Burbage's death in 1619, it would be expected that Shakespeare's plays would vanish, forgotten over time. That they did not was due to the big idea that one person Ben Johnson had: he published a book of his own poems and plays. While critics took him to task for this, other publishers had the idea to publish the entire plays of Shakespeare. And they would do it by publishing a much bigger book, the folio.

Discussion

The Bard And The Book explains how William Shakespeare's plays were saved from oblivion and passed down through the centuries to be read, studied and performed and enjoyed.

After a brief introduction to Shakespeare and his company, Bausum dives right into how early books were published in 17th century England, explaining quartos, octavos, and folios. A folio-sized sheet of paper was eighteen inches wide and fourteen inches tall. Folded in half it produced four pages in a book. When multiple sheets were folded in this way, they could be nested inside one another and sewn along the fold to create a book. In this way, the publishers created a folio of Shakespeare's works. 

As Bausum explains, using the fourteen good quartos, prompt books, the rolls, the foul papers, and possibly Ralph Crane who had copied so many of Shakespeare's plays, it was possible to assemble the plays and print them. Bausum goes on to explain whether pages were numbered using a process called signatures, how publishers assembled the books without using pagination, and how books were typeset in the 1600's using compositors. The first printing of Shakespeare's plays in 1623 has come to be known as the First Folios.

Once the First Folios were printed, who purchased them? The author explores the history of the original edition of Shakespeare's plays, including who purchased the very first copy and the unique names and characteristics of each copy. The First Folio is considered the most authentic edition because it was printed by people who knew Shakespeare. The Second Folio was published in 1632, the Third Folio in 1663 and the coveted Fourth Folio in 1685.

One interesting feature of The Bard And The Book is the hunt undertaken by literary scholars for the individual copies of the First Folio. The quest to locate any surviving copies of the First Folio really began in 1902 by British scholar, Sidney Lee. This treasure hunt, over the last century, by various researchers, has revealed two hundred thirty-five copies of the book! Many have very distinctive characteristics.

The Bard And The Book is a fascinating read that provides many interesting facts as to how books began to be published and how we now have copies of all of Shakespeare's works. Bausum's writing is informative and easy to understand with clear explanations and touch of wit. The author was inspired to research and learn more about the First Folios after being introduced to the story by the playwright Lauren Gunderson. There is also an interesting section titled, The Making of This Book which will show just how differently books are made today compared to the 1600s! There is a list of Citations From The Plays of William Shakespeare, Source Notes, Bibliography and Additional Resources for further research.

Bausum has incorporated several photographs of the Folios within her text. It's interesting to note that when she was able to actually inspect a real Folio, she wasn't required to wear protective gloves as they were considered to be more damaging than bare hands. There are red, blue and white digital illustrations by Marta Sevilla. The illustrator employed gouache and coloured pencils for the cover. The author has divided her book into five Acts, with quotes from Shakespeare's plays featured prominently. Also included is a list of Contents of The First Folio with the author noting which plays had not been previously published and therefore would have been lost to history if not included. 

The Bard And The Book adds wonderful background information to the life and works of William Shakespeare, explaining how we owe a debt to just a few forward thinking men who preserved his works for future generations of readers and actors alike.

Book Details:

The Bard And The Book by Ann Bausum
Atlanta, Georgia: Peachtree Publishing Company Inc.    2024
103 pp.