November 8, 2023

Cracking open Shakespeare's First Folio at the Blue Boar Tavern



Video Title: Cracking open Shakespeare's First Folio at the Blue Boar Tavern. Source: Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship. Date Published: November 1, 2023. Description:

November 8, 2023 marks the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's First Folio. Ever since its publication in 1623, Shakespeare enthusiasts have been discussing this book's peculiar intro materials, that uncanny portrait, and the identity of the playwright. 

Blue Boar Tavern regulars Bonner Cutting, Earl Showerman, Dorothea Dickerman, Tom Woosnam, and bartender Jonathan Dixon bend an elbow and mull over the oddities of the Folio. They chat 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." 

Recorded on December 15, 2022. 

Learn more at https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org