First Folio

The First Folio, more formally known as Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, is a contemporary book containing 36 of William Shakespeare's plays first published in 1623. The word Folio means "A book that's page has only been folded once", while most book pages of the time were Quartos, pages that have been folded four times.

Though many of Shakespeare's plays were available individually before the First Folio's publication, it was the first known book to compile all of Shakespeare's works into one text, and over half of Shakespeare's plays have only survived through the First Folio.

The plays are divided into three types, Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, a trichotomy that has survived until the present day. The book was written by William Shakespeare himself, with assistance by two of his actors, John Heminges and Henry Condell.

Of the 36 plays, the plays Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III were not included, a fact that has been used to justify the argument they were not written by Shakespeare, and neither were either of his "Lost Plays", Cardenio and Love's Labours Won.