Happy Folio 400! November 8, 2023 marks the 400th anniversary of the First Folio’s publication. Ever since 1623, Shakespeare enthusiasts have been discussing this book’s peculiar prefatory materials, that uncanny portrait, and, of course, the identity of the playwright.
Our Blue Boar Tavern regulars are no exception! Tavern patrons Bonner Cutting, Earl Showerman, Dorothea Dickerman, Tom Woosnam, and bartender Jonathan Dixon met last year to bend an elbow and mull over the oddities of the Folio. They chatted about the political situation surrounding its publication, Ben Jonson’s role (and his relationships with the Veres and Herberts), Martin Droeshout’s enigmatic portrait engraving, and how Stratfordian folk heroes Heminges and Condell probably didn’t “just put it together.”
The replay video of this gathering is available, watch it now!
