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In 1623 the first collection of William Shakespeare's works was published, seven years after his death (in 1616). A group of Shakespeare's fellow actors compiled thirty-six of Shakespeare's plays, including laudations from his contemporaries (such as Ben Johnson), and this published collection was known as the First Folio. The famous frontpiece featuring the Droeshout engraving of Shakespeare comes from this First Folio edition. Eighteen of the plays were previously unpublished, but the other eighteen had been published in Quarto form (The word ''quarto'' refers to a book made up of sheets of paper folded twice to form four leaves of equal size, or eight pages), during Shakespeare's lifetime as single plays.

There are various Quartos of Shakespeare's plays - known as "good" and "bad" quartos. "Good" quartos came from an authoritative, reliable manuscript (such as Shakespeare's own original manuscript or the official prompt copy from the play itself), whereas "bad" quartos were full of errors in the text, such as incorrect speech headings, repeated lines, missing lines and so on. The reason for the "bad" quartos has been put down to publishers wanting to cash in on Shakespeare's popularity and getting hold of copies of his plays either transcribed during a performance by someone in the crowd or written down from memory by one of the actors who had performed the work. This was possible due to copyright, or "rights of the author", being unheard of at the time.

In addition to the First Folio, there is a Second Folio (published in 1632), Third Folio (published in 1663, reprinted in 1664) and Fourth Folio (published in 1685). The Second Folio was essentially a reprint of the First Folio with some modernisation of the text and correction of errors such as stage directions and character names. The Third Folio (also known as the "fake" folio) had further corrections to the Second Folio, but also managed to add errors that had not previously been present in either the First or Second Folios. It also introduced seven new plays - six of which are now not believed to have been written by Shakespeare. The Fourth Folio (and last folio printed) modernised the text further, but also added new errors not previously in earlier editions.

We are collecting images of the frontpieces from the original William Shakespeare folios and quartos printed during the 16th and 17th centuries, and, after digitally restoring them, have made them available here on t-shirts, posters, prints, greeting cards, mugs and gifts.

Click on a design to see it on a wide range of products including t-shirts, prints, gifts and more!

Front Piece to Shakespeare's First Folio (1623) Design by: shakespeareink The First Folio the first published collection of William Shakespeare's plays. Its actual title is "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies". Printed in 1623, it contains 36 plays.	Front Piece to the Romeo & Juliet Quarto (1599) Design by: shakespeareink There were five versions of Romeo & Juliet printed as Quartos, not including the Folio versions. This frontpiece comes from the Second Quarto (also called the "good" quarto) printed in 1599	Front Piece to the Hamlet Quarto (1605 version) Design by: shakespeareink There were six versions of Hamlet printed as Quartos, not including the Folio versions. This frontpiece comes from the Second Quarto Variant (1605) - now available here on t-shirts & more
Front Piece to the A Midsummer Nights Dream Quarto Design by: shakespeareink There was only one version of A Midsummer Night's Dream printed as a Quarto, not including the First Folio and Fake Folio versions. This front piece comes from the original Quarto, printed in 1600