Dulwich College

This is a fragmented copy which exists in two bound volumes. It is missing almost all of the material from the tragedies except for six leaves of Romeo and Juliet. Only nine of the fourteen comedies are bound together in a volume and the second volume contains the Histories. The Comedies volume has been in this state since at least 1864 according to an inked manuscript note. This copy might have been owned by Edward Alleyn, the great Elizabethan actor and founder of Dulwich College in 1619. However, there is no mention of the Folio in any of his documents. In 2003, while repairing another volume, the library came across a list of books amongst which “Shakespears Workes – folio” can be found. The handwriting has been identified as being William Cartwright’s and thus it was concluded that the First Folio belonged to him. According to Rasmussen and West, it is likely that this copy “became part of the Dulwich Library when Cartwright made a bequest of some of his books in 1687” (67).