Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies 1623 Edition: Volume 1, Shakespeare: The Four Folios

by William Shakespeare

Excerpt from Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, and Poems, Vol. 1: Comedies

These earthly godfather! Of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights Than tliosethstwalkandwotnotwhsttheyarc which is nothing against the study of astronomy, but much against the looking at the great lights of the world, whether in manoria nature, merely from ascientific, nottosay apcdantic, point of view.

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993 pages, Hardcover

First published September 27, 2015

About the author

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet, and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard"). His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner ("sharer") of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men after the ascension of King James VI and I of Scotland to the English throne. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and even certain fringe theories as to whether the works attributed to him were written by others.
Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until 1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. However, in 1623, John Heminge and Henry Condell, two fellow actors and friends of Shakespeare's, published a more definitive text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works that includes 36 of his plays. Its Preface was a prescient poem by Ben Jonson, a former rival of Shakespeare, that hailed Shakespeare with the now famous epithet: "not of an age, but for all time".

Reviews

[Deborah Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t say I read the full book as I just read Hamlet for school but I will endeavor to review Hamlet. To quote Veggietales as one must ‘I laughed, I cried. It really moved me Bob.’ To me it will be a sort of pep talk, I may think I have horrible social skills but I don’t have the social skills of a depressed fellow who rather than confess his love to a girl would rather tell her to ‘Get thee to a nunnery’ ‘Go thy ways to a nunnery’ ‘To a nunnery, go; and quickly too.’ And so on. I can also rest assured I won’t kill said girl’s father because I hoped he was mine uncle the king and ‘I took thee for thy better’ and when said girl drowns both in her grief and literally I will not descend into her grave and fight with her brother about how I loved her more. I will also take away the tip that when someone who has dabbled or rather killed with poison tells you not to drink from a cup maybe consider not drinking from the cup. As to seeing your slain father’s ghost and planning to descend into madness in order to plan your revenge in solitude? You do you Boo.