THE PRINTING OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS.
Of the forty works commonly ascribed to Shakespeare nineteen—including Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, the Sonnets, and sixteen plays—were published in separate, quarto editions previous to the date of his retirement, about 1611. Another play, Othello, was first published in quarto in 1622. The remaining twenty plays first appeared in the collected Folio edition of the poet’s dramatic works in 1623.
Normally one finds, about the date of the first publication of each of the works printed in quarto, an entry in the register of the Stationers’ (printers’ and booksellers’) Company of London, establishing the publisher’s copyright in the work and his authority from the censors to print. There are two plays, however—Romeo and Juliet and Love’s Labour’s Lost—for which no entry or license prior to publication has been found. Conversely, two other plays were entered on the Stationers’ Register (one of them conditionally) which remained unprinted till included in the Folio. These were As You Like It (entered, ‘to be stayed,’ Aug. 4, 1600) and Antony and Cleopatra (entered, May 20, 1608).
The quarto editions are good, bad, and indifferent. Among the best are the first editions of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece, probably printed under Shakespeare’s personal supervision; the second editions of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet and the first of 1 Henry IV and Love’s Labour’s Lost, issued by special authority of Shakespeare’s company. The worst of the bad quartos are the first editions of Romeo and Juliet
