A page from a copy of the First Folio Photo: PBSWho, pray tell, were John Heminges and Henry Condell ? Men responsible for “the most important secular book in the history of the Western world,” according to “Making Shakespeare: The First Folio.” A “Great Performances” presentation, it is concerned, though not overly, with the original publication of William Shakespeare ’s previously uncollected plays, now 400 years old and a near-accident of history. Making Shakespeare: The First Folio Friday, 9 p.m., PBSHeminges and Condell, actor colleagues of Shakespeare, took it upon themselves (with assistance, financial and otherwise, we are told, from bookseller Edward Blount ) to collect, transcribe and print Shakespeare’s 36 known plays in the few years after the playwright’s death in 1616; fewer than 20 had been printed previously (in quarto form—eight pages of text to a sheet, folded to make four leaves). Others were gathered by the pair from handwritten copies, scripts, notes, and often had to be compared with the few examples of Shakespeare’s own handwriting, which was, as one expert describes it, “a mess.”

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Persons: John Heminges, Henry Condell, William Shakespeare ’, Shakespeare, Edward Blount Organizations: PBS