Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio finds home at Western University

While Stratford may be the usual stop for Shakespearean shows, London now has its own attraction for lovers of the English playwright.

Thanks to a donation from local physician Robert Luton, Western Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections is now home to a copy of Shakespeare’s Fourth Folio.

Published in 1685, the prized volume runs more than 900 pages, each page almost 40 centimetres long, and includes 43 plays, six of which are now considered other playwrights’ works.

“It is the, in effect, the text from which most subsequent publications of the works of Shakespeare’s were based for at least a couple of hundred years, well into the 1800s. In that sense, it’s the benchmark for what we would commonly know as the works of Shakespeare today,” said Robin Keirstead, archivist at Western University.

According to officials at Western University, experts aren’t certain how many Fourth Folios were published and how many still exits.

Although they are rare, two Canadian universities have them. McGill University has two copies, and now Western has one.

Kierstead said the 332-year-old volume has held up extremely well.

“It doesn’t smell dusty or musty, and I say that because that’s kind of the stereotype. It does have that old book smell, certainly. It’s in very good condition, a little bit of staining here and there, but given the age, that’s to be expected. The boards, the covers, we believe are original, but the spine isn’t. At some point, somebody had it rebound, but it doesn’t really take away from the value of the original work,” said Kierstead.

The collection of the Bard’s work will make its public debut Nov. 4 and 5 as part of Wordsfest at Museum London.

“We don’t want it to be, sort of, under glass, we want people actually have an opportunity to see it and consult it. I’m anticipating that we’ll have faculty members and students in here having a look at it in the not too distant future now that the word’s out,” said Kierstead.

Kierstead also said if anyone wants to see the book at another time, they can contact Western’s Archive and Research Collections Centre.

Western is not disclosing the volume’s appraised value.