Scholars don't have a lot of definitive documentation about the printing of the First Folio. Because of the division of work, this led to significant variations among individual copies of the First Folio. However, approximately 134 pages (14.8%) show signs of editing while the typesetting was in process. The bulk of the work was edited prior to going to print. As the company's prompter, Knight would have been responsible for managing the company's scripts, including compliance with any edits ordered by the Master of Revels. It has been posited that the prompter of the King's Men, Edward Knight, was instrumental in proofreading the manuscripts for the First Folio. Heminges and Condell provided much of the initial material for the folio. The rest would have been lost to history had it not been for the First Folio. Of the 36 plays in the First Folio, only half had been previously published as quartos. The source material was prepared from a combination of "foul copies" (Shakespeare's working drafts of his plays), "fair copies" (clean transcriptions of the foul copies), prompt books (annotated versions of the fair copies used in staging the actual performance), and quartos (previously published editions of the plays). Heminges and Condell set about collecting, revising, and annotating manuscripts, and the printers began to typeset the manuscript. Still, the precedent had been set, and Shakespeare himself was long dead. The decision drew criticism from more than a few of his contemporaries. Jonson had dared publish plays-popular entertainments that were hardly considered literature in their day-while still alive. Folios were reserved for "serious" literature by deceased authors. But that had been a risky and somewhat controversial publication. The playwright Ben Jonson had self-published a folio of his own dramatic works and poetry in 1616, the year Shakespeare had died. The idea wasn't a completely novel concept.
Their goal: to produce an anthology of Shakespeare's works-a folio. Heminges and Condell formed a consortium with bookseller Edward Blount and the father/son tandem of printers William and Isaac Jaggard. And the two men had close ties to Shakespeare, both having been named in his last will and testament. They had unparalleled access to the company's collection of manuscripts and had participated in the production of Shakespeare's works when they were first written. John Heminges and Henry Condell had worked with Shakespeare in the King's Men as actors and company shareholders. In 1621, two longtime colleagues of William Shakespeare decided that their deceased friend should be canonized for his work as a playwright. The First Folio is the only reliable text we have for 20 of Shakespeare's known works.
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