Shakespeare's First Folio
William Shakespeare
Read Shakespeare's First Folio by William Shakespeare in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/2270-shakespeare-s-first-folio.txt.
Description
Early printed texts of Shakespeare's plays keep their old spelling in this copy of the First Folio, as an editor's opening notes explain at length. Hamlet's first lines stand as proof: Barnardo asks who's there, and the answer comes in old forms that look like errors to modern eyes.
The notes blame the printers' craft, not the poet: type was costly, sorts ran short, and letters such as u and v traded places. Scholars, the editor warns, prize these quirks highly. Readers meet the plays close to their first printed state, spelling, odd letters, and all.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | William Shakespeare |
|---|---|
| COLLECTION | BOOKS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 4.3 MB |
| LICENSE | PUBLIC_DOMAIN |
| RIGHTS | PUBLIC DOMAIN |
| SOURCE | Project Gutenberg |