William Shakespeare's 450th Birth Anniversary And A Fragment Of His Fourth Folio Edition From 1685

It is April 23, 2014. On this day 450 years ago, it is believed that England's own William Shakespeare was born. In honor of Shakespeare's 450th Birth Anniversary, I pulled out a fragment of his Fourth Folio Edition: The Tragedy Of Locrine. The entire title is Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true Original Copies. Unto which is added, Seven Plays, Never before Printed in Folio … The Fourth Edition. This work was published in London by Bentley, Brewster, Chiswell and Herringman in the year 1685. A miniature bust of the playwright looks on. Someone years ago reinforced the leaves with additional paper. You will note the linen used in the paper. It is also known as rag fiber. Printers used to collect old clothing to boil and flatten into paper in those days.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vYJLxU2Os4






Here you can see the clothing or rag fibers in the linen paper:


If you wish to read along with these leaves, I found a copy of the same text on a Shakespeare website: http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/facsimile/overview/book/F4.html (The Tragedy Of Locrine is the last entry in the menu and after you arrive at the viewer, you would click thirteen times to get to page 299)