The most significant editions of Shakespeare in New Zealand
Auckland City Libraries is the only library in New Zealand to own the first four collected editions of Shakespeare's plays, known as the folios.
During Shakespeare's lifetime eighteen of his plays were printed in separate quartos, although a number of these were pirated or defective editions. However, the remaining plays had not been printed at the time of his death in 1616.
Former actor colleagues, John Heminge and Henry Condell, collected 36 plays which were printed in the first collected edition of 1623, known as the first folio. This included plays which had never been printed before such as Macbeth, The Tempest and Twelfth Night. Auckland City Libraries has the only first folio in New Zealand. It was bought by Sir George Grey for the Library in 1894, and is one of only 228 remaining copies in the world.
The later folios were printed in 1632, 1663 (which includes seven extra plays, only one of which, Pericles, is now attributed to Shakespeare) and 1685.
Special Collections also holds one quarto, Pericles, printed in 1619, and the first collected edition of his poetry, the Poems, printed in 1640. |
