The volumes in the photograph above have nothing to do with the First Folio but they are Shakespeare, and just one of the many editions of his work that have been published in the four centuries since the First Folio came to be. The Folio, the first collection of Shakespeare’s plays, was produced seven years after he died.

I haven’t read much Shakespeare, in fact I haven’t read any voluntarily. School required us to read A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, and Macbeth but they made little sense to me in sub-Saharan Africa.

Since then I’ve travelled a bit, learned a bit, and even attended a talk by Germaine Greer on Shakespeare’s wife, Ann Hathaway. Germaine Greer’s viewpoint was fascinating, disrupting previous opinions with some awkwardly possible ones of her own about the role and influence of Shakespeare’s wife. She also suggests that Ann Hathaway might have been involved in the production of the First Folio.

As for the plays in the First Folio, I remain way too ignorant of them but a few days ago I came across this clip of Dame Judi Dench reciting a Shakespeare sonnet. Her delivery was like a candle lighting in my Shakespeare dark.

Here it is. It’s very short, and ends with a brief Arnold Schwarzenegger appearance.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023