How Two Actors Saved the Complete Works of William Shakespeare From Being Lost

Hundreds of years after his death, William Shakespeare is still widely regarded as the best English writer in history. Although he borrowed heavily from others, his contributions to the English language and English writing have been incalculable. Despite the importance of his work, Shakespeare was not well received in his own day. He was but one of many good playwrights working in England in the 16th and 17th centuries and his work was never printed in his lifetime. Indeed, the first official collection of his work was not released until seven years after his death. Without the efforts of two actors, John Heminge and Henry Condell, that First Folio might never have been released and the world might have simply forgotten the genius of Shakespeare's plays.

Heminge and Condell were among Shakespeare's best friends and acted in a number of his plays at the Globe Theatre. After Shakespeare died in 1616, these two took it upon themselves to preserve his work in a published collection. Although there were a few copies of Shakespeare's plays in circulation already, these were "bootlegged" copies that were not authorized by Shakespeare himself. Rather, individuals who attended his plays sometimes made illegal copies of them by jotting them down during a performance or by writing them down as best they could from memory. Obviously, these unauthorized copies of the plays were quite dissimilar from what had actually been performed at the theatre. Sometimes, they were missing entire scenes!

In contrast, Heminge and Condell were quite familiar with Shakespeare's plays. In an age when an acting troop might perform a different play every night, these actors had committed much of the bard's material to memory. Unfortunately, they could not remember everything, so they had to search for the original manuscripts to supplement their memory. Since Shakespeare was constantly writing and modifying plays, this was a difficult task. There was no authoritative "official script" that Heminge and Condell could consult. Rather, the two actors had to piece the plays together page at a time while relying heavily on their own discretion. To help them decide what to keep, what to cut, and what to change, they enlisted the help of playwright Ben Johnson. Seven years after the death of Shakespeare, the three of them finally managed to produce the first "official" version of Shakespeare's plays.

Heminge and Condell had to raise the funds for the printing themselves, but they were eventually able to do so and the First Folio became available in 1623. Since then, the works of Shakespeare have been translated into hundreds of languages, have been produced by theaters all over the world, and are read by millions every year. Although Shakespeare's popularity is on a slow decline for various reasons, his works remain the most famous in the history of theatre. Remarkably, the world could have easily forgotten about the Bard of Avon if it had not been for the efforts of two of his friends to immortalize his words forever. Their efforts were a great success and it is likely that they will be read well into the foreseeable future.