Discovering Scripture in Shakespeare – 400 years on

‘When shall we three meet again?’ ‘Kiss me, Kate!’ ‘Et tu, Brute?’ ‘We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep.’

Imagine a world without the Forest of Arden, Malvolio’s yellow stockings or the drama of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor’s Antony and Cleopatra. Were it not for a small group of men in 1623, we wouldn’t have any of them.

This November marks the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio, a compilation of 36 of his plays, many of which can only be found in this collection. Without the careful work of Shakespeare’s friends and colleagues, John Heminges and Henry Condell, and their access to unpublished papers and actors’ prompt scripts, plays such as Antony and Julius Caesar, Cleopatra, As You Like It, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night and The Winter’s Tale would be lost to us.