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Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 2, No. 161. Tuesday, 11 Jun 1991.
 
(1)	Date:	Sun, 09 Jun 91 15:04:33 EDT
	From: 	Nicholas Ranson <R1NR%AKRONVM@vm1.cc.UAKRON.EDU>
	Subj:	Re: SHK 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
 
(2)	From: 	Ken Steele <ksteele@epas.utoronto.ca>
	Subj: 	Re: SHK 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
	Date: 	Tue, 11 Jun 91 10:06:03 EDT
 
(1) --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Date:         	Sun, 09 Jun 91 15:04:33 EDT
From: 		Nicholas Ranson <R1NR%AKRONVM@vm1.cc.UAKRON.EDU>
Subject: 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
Comment:      	Re: SHK 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
 
Yale published the Prouty facsimile in a reduced size sometime in the 50s,
I recall: Scolar published a reduced F1 version of Hamlet along with
Qqs 1 & 2 for comparative work.  But I do not know of a complete facsimile,
cheap, in print now. 			NR.
 
(2) --------------------------------------------------------------------
 
From: 		Ken Steele <ksteele@epas.utoronto.ca>
Subject: 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
Comment: 	Re: SHK 2.0159  First Folio Facsimiles
Date: 		Tue, 11 Jun 91 10:06:03 EDT
 
In response to Zip Kellogg's query, there are *older* facsimiles of
the Shakespeare First Folio of which I am aware, but to my knowledge
none remain in print and none are as useful or reliable as Hinman's
Norton Facsimile.  There are other SHAKSPEReans infinitely better
qualified to sing Charlton Hinman's praises than I am, but the Norton
Facsimile virtually single-handedly built the reputation of
W.W. Norton & Co. as a scholarly publisher (and hence we have such a
flood of Norton Critical Editions, etc.).
 
Hinman's careful collation of the Folios at the Folger (and
elsewhere?) produced volumes of bibliographical scholarship as well as
the Norton Facsimile, which offered for the first time the
now-standard "through-line-numbers" and selects the most-correct and
most-legible copy of each page of the Folio for reproduction.  The
result is as close to a "perfect" Folio as possible (far more
"perfect" than Jaggard ever intended), with all stop-press corrections
taken into account.  Hinman's introduction to the Facsimile includes
useful information on the printing and proofreading, naturally, a list
of substantive and semi-substantive variants, and appendices offering
examples of actual proof-corrected pages and a complete list of copies
used.  My point is, I suppose, that the Norton Facsimile is the best
available, and that anything less might be actively misleading to a
student (unless that student were to examine every extant copy...).
The Norton is a full-size facsimile; anything smaller would be more
difficult to work with.
 
In a world in which the Textual Companion to Shakespeare sells for
$150 (in Canada, anyway) I very much doubt that a photographic
facsimile of roughly 1000 pages can be had for less than $100.  The
Norton is *technically* out of print, I believe, but when I bought a
copy here in Toronto two years ago (for about $100 Can.) I was told
that Norton had uncovered a number of copies in their warehouse,
printed a new dustjacket (glossy green, white, and gold) and
distributed it to specialty bookstores (like TheatreBooks here in
Toronto).  At that price, you wouldn't want to put it on a course
list, but any library or scholar can certainly justify the expenditure.
 
					Ken

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