First Part of Henry the Fourth

If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text it will be the Applause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio it is this edition set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is <I>the</I> source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of Shakespeare's work. While other complete Folio editions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan “look ” none of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare studies or performances.