It is believed that an
edition of five hundred copies was issued, at one pound per copy. That
the publication was essentially a commercial venture, although it may
also have been a labor of love for some of the editors, is brought out
clearly and quaintly in the preface addressed to "The great Variety
of Readers", and signed by Heminge and Condell. This reads that the
book was printed at the charges of W. Jaggard, Ed. Blount, I.
Southweeke, and W. Apsley, 1623. The following passage from the
preface is well worth quoting, its spirit is so delightfully modern:
The fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities,
and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well!
It is now publique, & you wil stand for your priviledges,
wee know: to read, and censure.[27] Do so, but buy it
first. That doth best commend a Booke the Stationer
sales. Then, how odde soever your braines be, or your
wisdomes, make your license the same and spare not.... But
whatever you do, Buy. Censure will not drive a
Trade, nor make the Jacke go.
[Footnote 26: "Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, being a
reproduction in facsimile of the First Folio Edition of 1623, from the
Chatsworth copy in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, K.G.,
with introduction and censure of copies by Sidney Lee". Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1902, XXXV 908 pp.
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