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Shakespeare First Folio discovered on Scottish island




The Jacobean-era Cobbe portrait said to be of William Shakespeare, which is on display at the National Trust's Hatchlands Park in Surrey.
The Jacobean-era Cobbe portrait said to be of William Shakespeare, which is on display at the National Trust's Hatchlands Park in Surrey.

A COPY of Shakespeare's First Folio estimated to be worth millions of pounds has been discovered in a stately home on a Scottish island.

The 1623 first collected edition of plays was found in the library at Mount Stuart House, Isle of Bute and came into existence seven years after Shakespeare’s death.

The folio is authentic and is understandably regarded as a significant find.

About 230 copies of the First Folio are known to exist. A copy owned by Oxford University sold for £3.5m in 2003.

Emma Smith, professor of Shakespeare studies at Oxford University, said: “We've found a First Folio that we didn't know existed."

The goatskin-bound book will now go on public display at the stately home for the first time.

The First Folio, printed seven years after Shakespeare's death, brought together 36 plays - 18 of which would otherwise not have been recorded.

Without this publication, there would be no copy of plays such as Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, As You Like It and The Tempest.



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