1437900 1623 Shakespeare. Much Ado. Complete.
9658.
Fine
Much Ado About Nothing. 1623
From the First Folio. Complete.
SHAKESPEARE. Much adoe about Nothing. Complete. [London: Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount, 1623]. Folio (8 by 12-1/2 inches), modern half orange morocco gilt; 22 leaves.
Twenty-two leaves extracted from the landmark First Folio (1623) "intrinsically the most valuable volume in the whole range of English Literature" (Grolier 100 19) Containing the complete text of one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, Much Ado About Nothing.
Much Ado about Nothing followed Love's Labors Lost (mid-1598 and early 1599), and is another verbally dazzling and perennially popular Shakespearean comedy; especially in the banter between Beatrice and Benedick, the play boasts "some of the most successful, expertly realized humor in all of Shakespeare" (Bloom, 20).
Shakespeare’s associates John Heminges and Henry Condell prepared the First Folio; in 1623, William and Isaac Jaggard along with the bookseller Edward Blount published it. Of Shakespeare’s 39 undisputed plays, 18 survive solely because they appear in the 1623 Folio, making the book "intrinsically the most valuable volume in the whole range of English Literature" (Grolier 100 19). Fewer than 250 copies of the First Folio survive, and most of those copies are incomplete. Ornamental woodcut headpiece and small decorative intial to leaf I3r. Leaves I3-[M6], paginated 101-144. With press variants: I5r.b5 and K5v.b54 with inked space quads; K2v.b46 with first letter of "Beatrice" correctly set; L5r.a39 with corrected "remuneration" for "remuration." Much Ado About Nothing was first printed in a 1600 quarto edition. The earliest extant printed text of Loues Labour’s Lost is the 1598 quarto edition. See Jaggard, 378, 418. A fine copy.
The only quarto of Much Ado About Nothing to precede the First Folio was printed in London by V. Simmes for Andrew Wise and William Aspley in 1600. There are only sixteen known copies, so for all intents and purposes the Folio represents the earliest obtainable copy of the play.
In a wonderful piece of theatrical history, the actual name of Will Kemp is used in place of the character (Dogberry) he portrays. Kemp was considered the finest comic actor of his time and it is very likely that the part of the malaprop-ridden constable was written specifically for him. Incredibly, within a single scene (Act IV, Scene 2), Dogberry is referred to by five different prefixes: two versions of the character name, Kemp‘s own real name, a description of the type of role it is (“Andrew“ referring to Merry Andrew, a term for the Clown) and “Kee” which is probably short for Keeper. In the same scene, the name Cowley is substituted for the Verges character, the Cowley in question being Richard Cowley another of the King’s Men troupe.
The above mentioned usage of actor’s names in place of the characters they are portraying indicates that the compositors were very likely working from Shakespeare‘s own ‘foul‘ copy. It also shows that Shakespeare wrote at least in part with specific actors in mind for the roles he was creating.
Another fascinating characteristic of the First Folio stage directions versus those of later editions is that the Governor's (Leonato) wife Innogen is shown entering in the very beginning of the play and is then never heard from or seen again.