AMHERST — To commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of poet and playwright William Shakespeare, several of the Bard’s original 1623 First Folios are embarking on a cross-country tour.
In Massachusetts, Amherst College will be the only stop for the traveling exhibition, titled “First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare,” in conjunction with the Folger Shakespeare Library, according to an Amherst College release.
The First Folio will be on display at Amherst’s Mead Art Museum May 9 through 31, and the exhibition will be free and open to the public. Visitors will be able to see the book itself, which will be open to Hamlet’s famous “To Be or Not To Be” monologue. Accompanying the book will be a six-panel display exploring Shakespeare’s impact along with interactive, digital activities.
Considered one of the most influential books in the world, the First Folio includes 36 Shakespeare plays, 18 of which had never been printed before. Without the First Folio, all of those plays — including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, As You Like It and more — might have been lost forever. Compiled by two of Shakespeare’s friends and theater colleagues, the First Folio was published seven years after the Bard’s death in 1616.
“Amherst has long prized connections to primary-source literary documents because of the insight they offer into the history of the written word. We are particularly excited to be the Massachusetts host of the First Folio,” said college President Biddy Martin in the release. “The collector’s connection to the college makes the occasion of its visit unique to Amherst. It is a special treat to be part of the tour of this global treasure.”
That collector is Folger Shakespeare Library founder and namesake Henry Clay Folger, who died in 1930. Folger graduated from Amherst in 1879 and embarked on a highly successful career in business. He also spent much of his adult life building his Shakespeare collection, widely regarded as the greatest in the world.
“It does seem fitting that the First Folio returns to the alma mater of Henry Folger, given the passion and curiosity for Shakespeare he cultivated during his college years and then upon graduating,” said Michael Kelly, head of the college’s Archives and Special Collections in the release. “His preservation of Shakespeare’s works is yet another illustration of the great appreciation of the arts and humanities that an Amherst education instills in graduates. We are so thrilled to have one of Folger’s own First Folios here.”
Another exhibition about Folger’s time at Amherst runs through May 31. It includes selections from the college’s rare book collection and its copy of the Second Folio which was published in 1632.
Beginning in April through the end of May, Amherst will offer educational programs and related events for the public and families, including presentations by internationally recognized scholars, public performances of Shakespeare’s plays, and workshops for local teachers, as well as events organized by the Emily Dickinson Museum and The Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass.
A full schedule of related programming can be viewed at www.amherst.edu/go/firstfolio.